They Were Here First
by MaryAnn1819
Summary: James begins his 6th year determined to get over Lily. Despite an international Quidditch tournament and Voldemort's growing power, he can't seem to get her off his mind. Largely canon-compliant story focused on realistic, well-developed characters.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended. This story is for fun and not profit.

Author's Note: This story should be largely canon-compliant, with the exception of a special Quidditch event. The later chapters may get darker as Voldemort rises. The rating also may be updated to M if necessary. I'm not British, but I did my best to avoid any obvious American English words like mom rather than mum. Please do let me know if there are any glaring American phrases.

Also, I would very much appreciate your reviews. I would love to hear what you think of the characters, if there any plot twists you'd like to see, etc.

* * *

><p>As dawn approached, the fog around the castle of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry cleared. Among the many stone towers and turrets, stood Gryffindor Tower, where dozens of students slept in mahogany, four-poster beds.<p>

Inside the sixth-year girls dormitory, Lily Evans was up before her alarm even sounded. She sprang out of bed, stretched, and tip-toed to the window. She doubted any of her roommates would be awake. They had more than three hours before classes began.

But Lily knew she would not be able to fall back asleep. She grabbed her towel and toiletries, and set off for the showers. As she got ready for the first day of classes, she reflected on how much nicer it was to be able to use magic again. She could dry her auburn hair with a flick of her wand. Another flick had dried her petite body, another cleaned her teeth, and another curled and lengthened her eyelashes, making her green eyes stand out. She didn't even have to worry about what to wear, as she'd be wearing her uniform under her school robes.

"Oh Merlin, you're already dressed," Marlene McKinnon groaned as she sat up in her bed and pushed her blonde hair out of her eyes.

Marlene and Alice Manning were Lily's best friends. She had met Marlene on the train before her first year of classes. Lily had been trying to lift her trunk onto a high shelf when Marlene, who was tall and lanky even then, had come to assist her. Later that night, after she had been sorted into Gryffindoor, Lily had taken an empty seat next to Marlene.

They had met Alice a few minutes later. The sorting hat had taken its time with her. For nearly three minutes it had sat, covering half her round face, as it decided where to sort her. Alice had been nervously twirling the ends of light brown hair all the while. When the hat had finally yelled, "GRYFFINDOOR!", Alice had sprinted to the table and plopped into the chair beside Lily. The three girls had chatted through dinner, beginning a friendship that continued into the beginning of their sixth year.

"A bit eager aren't we?" Marlene said to Lily as she stumbled towards the bathroom.

"Lily is always up early on the first day," Alice said. Lily blushed and shrugged.

"Oh, it's alright, don't get embarrassed," Marlene said.

"At least this way, I'll have time to fix your hair," Lily called as Marlene entered the bathroom.

"And it's a good thing because I'm bloody useless at beauty charms, even when I am fully awake."

"Well isn't it just wonderful that Evans can do beauty charms. She certainly needs them!"

Lily groaned at the voice. Their other roommate, Christine Waters, had awoken.

"It's a bit early to be a bitch isn't it?" Marlene shouted from the bathroom.

"It is a bit early, but you three couldn't be bothered to keep it down, could you?"

Lily decided that Christine simply never washed her eyeliner off. Her brown eyes were rimmed with it though she hadn't left her bed. Lily thought the effect of her heavy makeup and bleached hair made Christine look positively ghastly, but she supposed boys didn't agree, as Christine never seemed to be without one.

"I'm sorry we woke you, Christine," Alice said.

"Oh, don't bother, Alice. She's rude no matter when she wakes up," Lily snapped.

"Bugger off, Evans."

Christine grabbed her toiletries and strode towards the door, most likely headed to the seventh year's dormitory, where she preferred to spend her time.

"Good riddance," Lily said when the door had slammed behind Christine.

"I was hoping we could all get along this year, but I suppose there's no reason it would be any different," Alice said.

Lily shrugged. Seeing as how Christine had just implied that Lily needed charms to keep from being ugly, Lily wasn't feeling much like getting along. That was hardly surprising since Christine had never gotten along with Lily, Marlene and Alice. She had said they were stuck-up teacher's pets, and they had said she was too concerned with partying and boys to be good for anything important.

Lily avoided looking at the mirror to see if she really could use a glamour charm or something for her hair. Christine had been implying Lily was ugly and stuck up since first year. In fifth year, Christine had added prude to the list when she found out Lily hadn't let her boyfriend get much beyond kissing.

Lily knew she shouldn't pay attention to anything Christine said, but she found herself fighting the urge to see a mirror nonetheless. She did want to look pretty on her first day of classes.

"Lily, you don't need any beauty help from charms," Alice said.

"Of course you don't!" Marlene called from the bathroom. "Christine has her knickers in a twist because she's shagged every single one of the Marauders, and none of them will so much as give her a second look, but you've got James Potter asking you out once a week. She's just jealous."

"Oh don't remind me about James Potter!" Lily groaned. "I think he may be done asking me out anyway. Things changed after…you know, the thing with Severus."

After OWLs last year, Lily had lost her first friend at Hogwarts. Severus Snape had been drifting towards what Lily called "the wrong crowd" for some time. His friends were obsessed with dark magic and bloodlines. She had felt them growing apart, their childhood together and his explanations about the magical world becoming a distant memory.

Things came to a head when James Potter and his friends, the famous Marauders, had started taunting Severus. James had him hanging upside down in the air when Lily marched over and insisted James stop. That was when Severus had said he didn't need any help from a Mudblood. To make matters worse, James had insisted he apologize and Lily had lost her temper at both of them.

When James found her later that day she had yelled at him more. She had taken out all her anger and the pain Severus had caused on James. She had screamed at him to leave her alone, mind his own business, and stop acting like a child. She had told him she hated him, thought he was a useless bully, and wanted nothing to do with him.

When she had finished her tirade, James was looking at her strangely. Normally he grinned charmingly at her, winked at her, or even stared longingly. This time she saw a flicker of hurt, and then his eyes went cold.

"Well Evans, I was going to apologize, but I think I've quite lost interest in that," he had snapped. "I won't bother defending you anymore, or really doing anything else with you. You can go straight to hell for all I care."

Then he had turned on his heel and walked out. Lily had been crying on her bed when Alice and Marlene found her and insisted she tell them what had happened.

"Lily," Marlene said. "Do you think James is still sore with you?"

"He must be. He didn't even say hello when we passed by eachother on the train."

Lily forced herself to shrug, but she felt strange nonetheless. James Potter had spent the better part of two years asking her out in every imaginable way. It was disconcerting to realize that he must have stayed angry throughout the summer and was now avoiding her.

"Well, at least he'll stop bothering you now," Marlene said.

"True. I wish Severus would follow Potter's strategy and ignore me as well. I think he's going to keep appearing out of nowhere to apologize."

"Well toss him," Marlene snapped. "I'd have hung him up in the air myself if I had heard him say that!"

"Yes, after he said it, not before; hence, the difference between you and Potter! I don't want to forgive him, even if he did only say it because he was embarrassed about-

"You don't honestly believe that, do you?" Marlene raised both her eyebrows at Lily. "You really think he's different than all his friends about that sort of thing?"

"I'm with Marlene on this," Alice said. "James may have made him angry enough to say it aloud, but I think James just brought out sentiments that were already there."

"I suppose you're right," Lily sighed. "Can we just forget it? It's the first day back, I don't want to think about it."

"Then think about my hair," Marlene said. "It needs that charm you do for volume."

"You could also think about what Dumbledore said last night, that there's going to be some sort of surprise he'll be announcing at dinner tonight," Alice said.

"Am I the only one unnerved by that?" Marlene asked. "He was grinning like a loon when he said it. Besides, my parents mentioned something about a surprise too."

"Yes, mine too!" Alice said. "And they were nervous about it. Said that perhaps we shouldn't be holding such an event in light of the muggle-born kidnappings that started this summer."

"My mum said the same thing, but my dad disagreed. Said Dumbledore would keep everyone safe, and I'm inclined to agree with him," Marlene said. "But I do worry when he gets excited like that. He has had some rather crazy ideas of fun."

"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what he says tonight," Alice said. She had pulled her robes over her head and was now smoothing out her hair.

"Are you ready then? I want to see our timetables," Lily said.

"You would," Marlene laughed. "But, we might as well head down."


	2. Chapter 2

"She's here Prongs, with Alice and Marlene, and they're all looking good-

"He's trying to avoid her, that's not going to help," Remus Lupin said.

James stared resolutely at his plate and then stabbed a sausage with his fork.

"Touchy," Sirius said, a grin in his voice. James didn't feel like grinning back.

"This isn't any fun Prongs, just give up being angry with her. You're more miserable like this than you are when she's insulting you."

"I'm done with her," James said when he had swallowed the sausage. "She basically told me I'm an arrogant, worthless piece of shit. If that's what she thinks then I can't really see a relationship getting off the ground, can you?"

"That's never stopped you before," Sirius said.

James flipped Sirius the bird and stabbed another sausage.

"You're being such a bloody woman about this, just ignoring her and then getting all moody."

James rolled his eyes. He was going to reply, but then realized that Sirius might have a point. He was being moody, but that didn't mean he ought to go crawling back to Lily.

"I'll snap out of it," he said at last. "But, I'm done with her."

Sirius looked at him for a moment, and James met his eyes. He was done with Lily, or at least he desperately wanted to be.

"Alright then," Sirius said at last. "If you're going to forget about Evans, then you need a distraction, and a right good one. So, we need to find you a girl."

"That hasn't worked in the past," James said, glumly recalling the many girls he'd snogged—and the few he'd shagged—in an effort to find one he liked better than Lily Evans.

"Well, obviously you didn't find a good enough distraction," Sirius said.

James shook his head and chuckled.

"Let's take a look," Sirius said as he began scanning the Great Hall.

"I suggest you avoid Gryffindors," Remus said. "If she's hanging about with the girl you choose, there won't be much distraction."

"Fair enough. So Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws," James had decided it was easier to go along with Sirius' plan to find him a girl, especially if Remus had joined in.

"What about Jessica Fowler?" Peter nodded towards the Hufflepuff table.

James looked at the girl in question. She was pretty, with dark hair and bright blue eyes. She seemed sweet, sweet and innocent.

"Nah." James wasn't sure why he had no desire to hook up with Jessica Fowler, but the fact remained that he was even less interested in her than he was in most girls who were not Lily Evans.

"How about Julia Taylor?"

James followed Remus' gaze over to the Ravenclaw table and watched Julia Taylor for a moment. She was speaking animatedly with three of her friends, and James had to admit she was pretty. She had full lips and wavy, blonde hair that shimmered with the light as she tossed it over her shoulder. Then she looked up, as though she felt James' eyes on her. He was going to turn away, but she caught his eyes with her brown ones. He smiled at her. She smiled back, bit her lip, then looked down again. James turned back to see his friends laughing.

"Perfect," Sirius said.

James allowed himself another smile.

"She is pretty."

"Clever too, I was her partner for a charms project last year," Remus said. "She had just broken up with John Carmichael, said he was a bore."

"Well, that's one thing we'd agree on," James said.

"She should be in NEWT Charms with us. You can talk to her then," Remus said. "But we have to get to Herbology now. It'd be nice not to be late to our first class."

"I don't see what would be particularly nice about that," Sirius said, but he got up and grabbed his books nonetheless.

James took a final swig of pumpkin juice and followed Sirius away from the table. He avoided looking at the part of the Gryffindor table where he knew Lily and her friends usually sat. Instead, he turned toward the Ravenclaw table and sought out Julia Taylor. She had been looking at him, and she glanced down quickly. James waited until she chanced another glance in his direction, then he gave her his best grin.

"Already working the Potter charm," Sirius said with a laugh.

"I think it's having the desired effect." James watched Julia blush and smile back at him, nervously playing with her hair.

"Well, not every girl can have me, so I reckon it's good that a few of them will settle for you."

"Settle, Padfoot? She was looking at me the whole time."

"It's hard to say, we've been right next to eachother. I'm definitely better looking-

James snorted.

"You can't deny it. Christine Waters said I'm the most handsome in our class."

All four of them started laughing at the memory of Christine drunkenly informing Sirius of the fact.

"Ah, but you forgot what she said about me," James said. "Now, forgive me if I'm misquoting, but I do believe she said my smile brings Hogwarts girls to their knees in broom closets."

"Wanker," Remus said as he rolled his eyes.

"Come on now Moony, I'm only quoting. It's not like I made that up myself. Besides, she also called you "mysteriously sexy" during that same conversation."

Remus blushed.

"Christine thinks anything with two legs is sexy."

"Well, that would exclude you for one night out of the month, so I suppose she must have other standards," James said.

He was pleased to see he got a laugh out of Sirius, who was now speculating as to what Christine Waters' standards might be.

"She slept with Zaterman, and he's in Slytherin and almost as slimy as Snivellus. So, normally I would say that two legs would have to be her only standard, but apparently even that's too strict. Perhaps her standard is 'must have two legs most of the time.""

James and Peter laughed, and Remus shook his head while he tried to stifle a chuckle.

"Then again, she doesn't know about Moony here, so perhaps we're being unfair in denying her even the two-leg standard-Oi, Peeves!"

James looked up and followed Sirius' gaze to Peeves, who was blowing wads of gum at a group of first-year girls. One landed in a girl's hair and she looked at it frantically, eyes starting to well up.

"We ought to put a stop to that," James said as Peeves hit another girl's hair.

"It really is a terrible welcome to the school for those poor girls," Sirius agreed. "Besides, he needs to be more creative. He's had centuries to think about ways to make trouble and that's all he's got? It's pathetic."

"Peeves!" James shouted across the corridor. "Have you really resorted to picking on eleven-year-old girls?"

He marched towards the poltergeist, wand out, with Sirius at his side.

"We think you've lost your touch," he said.

Remus followed them, but veered off towards the girls and began trying to get the gum out of their hair.

"Peeves, Peeves," James sighed. "It's so sad to see you stoop this low, really, we've got to stop you."

"Piss off Potter!"

James flicked his wand and the poltergeist froze.

"Nice alliteration, Peevesy," he said.

James knew the spell would wear off quickly. He didn't quite have the knack of using a freezing charm on ghosts, though it was one of the few spells that didn't go right through them. At least Remus and Peter had succeeded in getting the gumballs out of the girls' hair.

"Can I see those?" Sirius asked.

"Let's just go," Remus said. He could see the beginning of an idea forming in Sirius's mind just as clearly as James could.

"Moony! I just want to see them!"

Remus frowned, but handed over the gumballs. Sirius tossed them in his hand for a moment, then grinned. The idea had become fully formed.

"Prongs, can you transfigure these into birds?"

"Sure."

James focused his attention on the gumballs and flicked his wand. The gumballs became large blue, birds that squawked indignantly as Sirius held them. The two girls scampered behind Remus and Peter.

"Grab them for me."

James held the birds, trying not to crush them as they struggled against his hold. Sirius was looking at them with great concentration. He flicked his wand and a sign appeared between the two birds reading "Peeves the Pathetic Poltergeist". Sirius flicked his wand a second time.

"Let them go now."

James let go of the birds and they fluttered above Peeves' head, squawking loudly. Peeves, tried to roll his eyes up to read the sign since he was still too frozen to move. The first-years started giggling.

"You need to unfreeze him so I can make sure my charm still works. Oh and ladies," Sirius turned to the first years. "You may want to head to class, I don't think Peeves will be in a very good mood."

He flashed a wink at the girls, who blushed and stared at him for a moment before they ran down the corridor.

James lifted his freezing charm and waited.

"What the-argh!"

Peeves tried to move out from under the sign, but the loud birds followed him, keeping the sign above his head. Furious, Peeves directed a gumball at James, who turned it into a bird with a flick of his wand.

"Go join your friends," Sirius said, casting a charm on the bird.

Peeves started to float quickly away. James and Sirius exchanged a glance, and then chased after him, wands aimed at the gumballs he was dropping in his wake.


	3. Chapter 3

Lily's first class of the day was Herbology, which the sixth year Gryffindors were taking with the Hufflepuffs. After they walked across the lawn and entered the greenhouses, Lily took a seat between Alice and Marlene.

"We seem to be missing a few of the Gryffindors," Professor Greene said as he arrived in the classroom at exactly nine o'clock.

Lily glanced around and noticed that none of the Marauders were there. She shook her head in disgust, they were going to lose points for Gryffindor on the first day back. Even Remus was missing, though she suspected he was probably not gone by choice.

"Well, no matter," Professor Greene continued. "We're going to be working in pairs on a long term project this year. Now, how many of you are familiar with snapping tulips-

Before anyone could answer his question, the door banged open and Sirius Black and James Potter barged through it. They stopped for a moment, and Peter Pettigrew slammed into Sirius's back.

"Oi Wormtail!"

"Gentleman!" Professor Greene snapped. "You're late-

"And we're terribly sorry," Remus Lupin said, as he followed the three boys in looking mortified.

"Unfortunately it just couldn't be helped," James said, looking not the least bit mortified. "You see Professor, we came to the defense of some poor, helpless first-years who were being accosted by Peeves-

"That pathetic poltergeist," Sirius added with a grin.

"We were just walking down the hall, on our way here of course, when we saw he was spitting gum at little first-year girls. As you can imagine, they were quite distressed. Girls don't like sticky things in their hair-

"As we discovered ourselves in first year when we were innocently experimenting with the effects of gum in Chelsea Hartford's curly hair-

"Quite right, it was an unfortunate discovery, but we knew from then on that girls did not appreciate that sort of treatment. So, when we saw what Peeves was doing we had to put a stop to it-

"Potter! Black! Enough!" Professor Greene cut in. "Just sit down and be quiet!"

Lily waited for him to dock points or give them detention, but he seemed so relieved they had stopped talking that he just continued on with the lecture.

_They get away with everything_, Lily thought to herself.

"Right, now, snapping tulips," said Professor Greene. "The flower itself is not what makes these plants so extraordinary, it's the leaves. Once the plants are three months old, the leaves can be clipped, smashed, and the juice that comes out can be used in a variety of potions. Who can tell me which potions use tulis?"

Lily, who recalled the answer from a conversation she had had with Professor Slughorn, raised her hand and the professor nodded at her.

"Amormentia, several varieties of cheering charms, and pantaline, which brings down fevers."

"Yes, all those are correct. Ten points to Gryffindor. Now, we will be starting with very young plants and tending to them for the next three months, at which point we will clip and smash the leaves. This is a project that will require you to work in pairs, which I have assigned."

Professor Greene glanced down at a piece of parchment and began reading names.

"Black, Meadows."

"Dennison, Vance."

"Evans, Potter."

Lily felt her stomach twist and her breathing speed up. Potter. She remembered the cold look in his eyes when she yelled at him at the end of last year. She remembered the way he had simply looked past her on the train and not even said hello. She was used to feeling irritated at the prospect of spending time with James Potter, feeling nervous was a new sensation.

She chanced a glance at him. His face was expressionless and he was avoiding her gaze and staring at the professor. Remus leaned over and said something to him, but James just shrugged. Peter glanced at James, and then at Lily, and then at James. Lily saw Sirius Black step on Peter's foot and mutter something out the side of his mouth. Sirius then looked at Lily, grey eyes unreadable, and delicately raised an eyebrow.

Lily turned back towards the front, hoping Black's gaze was not actually as penetrating as it seemed. She didn't like feeling as though she was baring her soul involuntarily.

"Now go and sit next to your partners."

Lily watched as James stood up and walked over to the seat Alice had just left. He didn't say a word to her. He simply sat down and refused to make eye contact with her. Lily decided to try for some civility.

"Hi, James."

"Hi."

His tone wasn't hostile, nor was it kind. It was simply neutral. He had acknowledged her though, and Lily thought that was something.

"Well, er, did you have a good holiday?"

Before James could answer, or elect not to, Professor Greene had started speaking again.

"Now, this will be an important part of your final grade, and it will require work outside class. I expect you to read the book I have assigned on snapping tulips by the end of the week. My lectures will give additional information, but you will have to rely on the reading for most of your instructions. Today we will be transplanting them in pots. Since you haven't had time to do the reading yet, I will explain how this is to be done."

Lily and James joined their classmates in pulling out quills and parchment for notes. Lily welcomed the new activity. For at least a little while, she was able to forget about James' behavior and focus on how to transplant their snapping tulip.

When Professor Greene finished, Lily scanned her notes again to decide how best to proceed. To her consternation, James interrupted her.

"I'll go get the plant since it's heavy. You can mix up the soil."

Lily drew her brows together and sniffed.

"I can get the plant just fine."

James opened his mouth, then shut it again and rolled his eyes.

"Have it your way."

Lily scoffed and strode towards the front of the room where the plants were sitting. She could manage it just fine. Who was James Potter to decide that she couldn't? And to just tell her what to do, without even asking how she thought they ought to proceed! He was infuriating!

When she reached the table with the potted snapping tulips, Lily braced herself and picked one up. She nearly dropped it right away. It seemed impossible that such a small object could weigh so much, but then Professor Greene had said it was one of the plant's defense mechanisms.

Arms tensed, Lily walked slowly towards the table she was sharing with James. Her steps were even tinier than usual as she struggled to balance the plant in her already-aching arms. By the time she reached the table, her arms were shaking furiously. James didn't even look up at her. He was looking at the plants he was mashing to add to the soil already sitting in their pot.

"They'll be all mashed in a second," he murmured.

Lily had intended to give a full-sentence reply. Instead, she let out a squeak. Her arms shook and her hands could no longer grip the pot. It was going to drop. It would shatter all over the floor. It would ruin their grade. Any second now it would-

"Here."

Lily felt James' arms on either side of her own and the sensation of weight being lifted. Without taking the plant fully out of her grasp, he guided it down to the table. Lily felt her arm spasm as she let go of the plant.

"Relax your fingers."

James cupped her right hand between his thumb and fingers, pressing gently on her palm with his thumb. Lily felt her fingers relax out of their curled position, and James did the same to her left hand. They were silent for a moment as Lily flexed her fingers and tried to identify the warm feeling coursing from her fingertips through her body.

"Thanks," she said eventually. "That's a handy trick."

"After Quidditch practice in the winter, your fingers are practically frozen in the position they were on the broom. Greg Wood taught me that during first year."

Lily wasn't sure what to say in response. She watched James' hands and arms as he finished mashing the plants and stirring them into the soil. His hands were much longer and wider than hers. She could see the outlines of veins and the muscle in his forearm as he worked. When he had finished stirring the soil, he cupped his hands and scooped it up. He put a few handfuls into the bottom of their pot, then turned to her.

"So, one of us will need to hold the plant while the other loosens the roots-

"You should probably hold the plant."

Lily waited for him to smirk, but instead he just nodded and picked the plant up from inside its pot. It could have been a paperback novel for all the effort that action seemed to require from him. Still, Lily figured it wouldn't be long before he started to feel the weight. She worked quickly at the roots on the side, then crouched down to start on the roots at the bottom. James lifted the plant above his head to make it easier for her to see.

"I'm almost done. I'll work fast," she assured him.

"No rush."

And it seemed there was none. The plant was steady in his hands and his face seemed perfectly calm and relaxed. Lily finished with the roots and stepped aside, and James put the plant in its new pot. They each grabbed handfuls of soil and patted it in around the plant.

"Right, well, just water it and we're done for today," she said.

"I'll get some water."

Lily watched him walk over to the table and grab a watering can. He was speaking to her now and being helpful, that was quite an improvement over the beginning of class. Lily wasn't entirely sure where the urge came from, but she wanted to apologize to him, for what she didn't know. For being stubborn and almost dropping their plant? For assuming he was trying to boss her around when he was really just trying to be a gentleman and carry something heavy? For yelling at him last year? She winced at that thought. She could still remember the hurt that flashed in his eyes for a moment, and the cold way he looked at her afterwards. Was he still looking at her that way? Lily realized she hadn't met his eyes at any point during the entire class.

He filled up the watering can and Lily felt her eyes still glued to his back and his messy hair. She was looking at the line of his broad shoulders when he turned around and she turned back to their plant. She could feel her cheeks getting warm, which thoroughly annoyed her. It was just Potter, And if he caught her looking at him, he would misconstrue it and she would never hear the end of it. Or at least that's what he would have done before. Now, Lily realized she was at a loss when it came to predicting his actions.

James was beside her now, watering their plant and Lily was trying to will the blush in her cheeks to go away.

"Right then, that seems to be everything we do for today," he said.

"Yes, seems so."

Lily still couldn't bring herself to look at him. The urge to apologize was overwhelming. She wasn't going to apologize for what she said last year, he had been a git to Severus and deserved to be yelled at for it, but she could apologize for being silly about the plant. After all, if they were going to work together on such an important project, they ought to be on good terms.

Lily realized Professor Greene had been speaking, and she had missed every word he had said. He must have been dismissing them because everyone was packing up their things.

"So, we'll just do the reading this week, and take turns watering the plant twice a day, yeah?" James asked her.

"Right, sounds good. I'll get it tomorrow since you watered it today."

Lily wasn't sure if they ought to be doing anything more, but James had seemed on top of everything else today.

"Okay then."

He was turning to walk towards the door and Lily realized that if she was ever going to apologize, she ought to do it now.

"Potter!"

He turned and looked expectantly at her.

"I, er, I should apologize. I was being stubborn and silly about carrying the plant."

She spewed the words out in a nervous rush, then forced herself to look him in the eye. His eyes were warm, so disarming, that Lily felt like she could probably continue.

"You were just being helpful, and I-I just...I don't take well to being bossed around and-

James opened his mouth.

"I know you weren't trying to boss me around, you were just being helpful. So, I overreacted, and I'm sorry."

She caught her breath. The beginning of a smile was forming on his face, and for a reason Lily couldn't explain, she found herself speaking again.

"I'm also sorry for-

"Prongs! You coming?"

Lily felt the urge to strangle Sirius Black just then. She looked around and saw that she and James had an audience. Remus Lupin was grabbing Sirius' arm, looking irritated. Peter Pettigrew, Alice, and Marlene were all staring at her and James, looking slightly stunned.

"Er, well, anyway, like I said, I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted, Evans."

He gave her a small smile. Lily smiled back, and he turned and followed his friends out of the greenhouse.


	4. Chapter 4

James had been so out of sorts for the rest of the day that he barely managed to do even basic flirting with Julia Taylor. He was grateful that their interest in each other was so new that it didn't even require talking. After class, James had left his friends in the common room, changed into athletic gear, grabbed his broom, and headed for the Quidditch pitch. None of the teams were practicing on the first day back, so the pitch was deserted.

James knew better than to start flying straightaway. When his mind was on Lily, flying alone wasn't a sufficient distraction. So he ran laps around the pitch, did pushups and situps, and sprinted up the bleachers until he was starting to feel lightheaded.

What was she playing at, acting so friendly all of a sudden? Did she decide he was finally worth treating like a normal human being? Did she forget about last year? Was she going to apologize about that too? Was that was she "also sorry for?" And why did she have to go treating him nicely when he had just found a halfway decent plan to get over her?

Knowing he wouldn't be able to answer any of those questions, James grabbed his broom and kicked off into the air. He soared in circles around the pitch, each time he went around a little faster than before. Then he sped off from the pitch towards the Forbidden Forest and began to zigzag through the trees, going so fast that they were nothing but brown blurs.

When Lily still refused to leave his mind, he returned to the pitch and started practicing dives. Each time he started from a bit higher and dove towards the ground a bit faster. He was beginning to think he could have been a Seeker. Nothing to it but nerve really, you just had to be willing to go faster and closer to the ground than your opponent.

James wondered briefly if being a Seeker would have made him more attractive to Lily, they did seem to get all the glory. Irritated at this thought, he flattened himself to his broom and flew straight into the air until the force of the altitude was practically knocking him off his broom. Then he turned around and plummeted towards the ground.

As he plunged lower, his mind was finally free of Lily. James felt almost giddy as the ground got closer and closer and his speed picked up. He could pull out of the dive now and be safe, or he could go lower and see how he good he really was. The ground was getting very, very close and he wasn't slowing down. He thought he could manage just a bit more. Finally, his instinct for survival overruled his mind and he pulled out of the dive just before he would have crashed.

"Bloody hell!"

Still grinning from the rush of his dive, James turned and faced Sirius.

"Trying to kill yourself?" Sirius' was smiling too, but James noticed that his face was pale.

"Course not, just keeping it exciting."

"Well good, because if you off yourself then I'll have to actually join the Quidditch team to hit bludgers at someone," Sirius said. "I don't reckon anyone else will let me do it just for fun."

James saw that Sirius had brought the bag with bludgers and a Beater's bat to the pitch. They let the bludgers out of the bag and began their familiar game. Sirius batted bludgers at James, who raced around the pitch to avoid them. Sirius seemed to enjoy whacking the bludgers with a bat, and James thought the practice dodging improve his performance against real Beaters on the Quidditch pitch.

"You really could have been a helluva Beater, if you'd wanted," James said when they had finished and were wrestling the bludgers back into the bag.

"You know I couldn't be arsed with practicing three times a week, and I probably would have had to take direction from you."

They both laughed and walked towards the equipment shed. When they had put the bludgers and beater's bats away, Sirius and James made their way to the edge of the lake. They sat down and took off their shirts to let the breeze cool them. James took a snitch from his pocket and tossed it around. For a time, neither boy spoke.

"So, Evans was friendly today?" Sirius broached the subject finally.

"I know, just to bloody confuse me," James groaned. "Right when I think I know what I'm going to do, it all gets screwed up."

"I don't see how it's screwed up."

"Well, I can't ignore her anymore, not with this project. And Julia…I don't know." James turned the snitch over in his hands and tried to gather the thoughts that had swirled in his brain since Herbology.

"The way I see it, nothing changed. Evans didn't confess her undying love to you, so you may as well still go out with Julia."

James considered this. Sirius was probably right. Evans wasn't interested in him, wasn't going to be, and was just trying to have a civil working relationship so she could get a good grade on the Herbology project.

"What do you think she was going to say before I interrupted?" Sirius asked.

"Dunno, and it's your bloody fault."

"Sorry mate," Sirius said, and he did look sheepish.

"Doesn't matter anyway," James said, and he tried to convince himself that was true.

"Besides, things look promising with Julia, eh?" Sirius raised his eyebrows and James smirked.

They sat in silence for a while longer, watching the sun sink lower over the Forbidden Forrest.

"When are you going to hold Quidditch trials?" Sirius asked.

"Next week. I'll write up the announcement and get Remus to approve it tonight."

"What do you need? Just a Keeper right?"

"Right," James said as they made their way towards the Great Hall.

"I suppose there's always the possibility that someone will come back terrible, but I doubt it. We had a pretty good group last year."

"Pretty good? You won the cup!"

James smiled as he recalled the match; it had been brilliant. The team probably would be pretty good, probably good enough to win the cup again. He supposed the year might just shape up alright.


	5. Chapter 5

Lily, Marlene, and Alice were in the Great Hall promptly at 6:00 PM as they had been instructed. The heads of houses had informed their pupils that morning that Dumbledore had scheduled another feast so he could make an announcement. Nearly the entire student body was seated and looking expectantly towards the staff table.

Lily had just realized two seats at the Gryffindoor table were empty when the doors to the Great Hall swung open. For a moment the hall was silent, then students roared with laughter.

"Oh Merlin, look at them! At a feast!" Marlene said as she joined in the laughter.

Lily tucked her knees under her and straightened up to see the source of the ruckus. Filch was dragging Sirius Black and James Potter into the Great Hall, and they were both completely out of dress code. Gone were the school robes and uniforms; instead both boys were wearing trainers and athletic shorts. Sirius was smoothing out his tee shirt and James was trying to get his shirt over his head with one hand while Filch yanked him forward with the other.

Someone let out a wolf-whistle as James twisted his shirt around, revealing some of what Lily was forced to admit was a very toned stomach.

Professor McGonagall stood up from the staff table.

"Oh she's going to ruin it," sighed Alice. "I was rather enjoying the view. James has gorgeous abs!"

Lily didn't feel like admitting Potter had gorgeous anything at the moment. She couldn't believe he would go this far to get attention. Hadn't he heard Dumbledoor was planning an important announcement?

"They are absolutely obnoxious," she snapped.

"Of course they are," Marlene said. "But quite fit. I think they should forget the school uniforms and keep wearing athletic gear. If James weren't my first cousin-

"That shouldn't stop you. All purebloods marry their cousins."

"You're terrible," Marlene laughed.

Filch had come to a stop near the edge of the Gryffindoor table and dropped his hold on James and Sirius. He then straightened his shoulders and addressed McGonagall, who was marching towards the table with her mouth pressed into a very thin line.

"Professor, I found them wandering the grounds, after hours, and out of dress code."

"We were not wandering, we were on the Quidditch pitch!" James protested.

"And did it cross your mind that there was a feast to attend?" McGonagall asked.

"We were on our way back to the castle to change-

"You would have been tremendously late even if you hadn't run into Mr. Filch."

"But Professor, we-

"Enough! You will not make any more of a scene than you already have!" McGonagall's wand emitted a flash and James and Sirius were knocked backwards and suddenly draped in tattered, baggy, school robes.

"Detention!" McGonagall said. "My office. Tonight. After the feast!"

"But-

"Not a word!" McGonagall raised her wand and Sirius and James both shut their mouths. Laughter was still echoing in the Great Hall as they slid into empty chairs a few seats down from Lily and her friends.

Lily rolled her eyes. James Potter would think it funny to show up out of dress code and interrupt Dumbledore's announcements. He was probably showing off for whatever girl he was going after this week. Lily had grown accustomed to hearing about Potter snogging some girl just hours after Lily turned him down, fueling Lily's opinion that he didn't truly care for her, but just liked the chase.

His behavior absolutely incensed her. Gone was any lingering sense of guilt for yelling at him last term, he apparently needed to be yelled at more often. Lily couldn't believe she had actually felt bad for someone so arrogant, and so concerned with being the center of attention, that he would make this kind of scene.

"Lily, stop it, you're glaring daggers at James and Sirius," Marlene whispered.

Lily was about to reply, but Dumbledore stood up and the hall went quiet.

"Now that we are seated and clothed, I do have something to say that is just a trifle more important than Mr. Potter or Mr. Black' s clothing choices," the headmaster spoke, looking over at the two offending parties.

Lily was pleased to see they at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

"I had wanted to make this announcement upon your arrival last night; however, there were still a few last-minute arrangements to be confirmed," Dumbledore said. "Here at Hogwarts it is easy to forget just how large the magical community is. Some of you have met witches and wizards from other countries, but I know many of you have not. The experience one gains when meeting new people, or learning about other cultures is invaluable. It is for this reason, and for your enjoyment of course, that we have decided to host an international Quidditch tournament among Hogwarts and other wizarding schools."

Lily, Alice, and Marlene joined much of the great hall in gasping.

"Allow me to explain what this tournament will entail. Since Hogwarts will host the tournament, students from the schools of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons will be joining us so they can train on the competition pitch. However, each school will continue to teach classes separately."

"Each school will have one Quidditch team, and three reserve players. The teams of Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and Hogwarts will each play one another for three matches. So, Hogwarts would play a total of six matches, excluding possible participation in a championship match. The two teams with the best records will play each other in the championship. In the event of a tie in two teams' records, the participants in the championship match will be determined based on point differentials."

The hum of whispers began again, and Dumbledore seemed perfectly content to let them continue.

"So this is what my parents were hinting about!" Marlene said. "Bloody hell, this is exciting! I wonder how the Hogwarts team is going to be formed."

"I suppose there will be a tryout," Lily said. "Although, who would pick the players? Madame Hooch, maybe?

"I was going to go out for the Gryffindor team this year, now that the Keeper's slot is open, but I doubt I could make a school-wide team," sighed Alice.

"You don't know until you try," Lily said.

"Maybe. But Frank Longbottom, the Ravenclaw keeper, is awfully good and Slytherin's keeper last year wasn't bad either. I just don't know."

Lily opened her mouth to offer more reassurance, but Dumbledore had started to speak again.

"If I may have your attention once more," he said. "I would like to go over the formation of the Hogwarts team. I have consulted with the heads of houses, Madame Hooch, and several other staff members to pick our Quidditch captain, who will hold tryouts to assemble the remainder of the team. Each house must have one member on the squad, but we have placed no other restrictions on our captain."

Dumbledore stopped speaking and students commenced whispering again. This time, nearly all of the whispers were about the identity of the Quidditch captain.

"I am very pleased to announce that our captain will be James Potter, who led Gryffindoor to the House Cup last year, and barely managed to tear himself away from the pitch to hear this announcement," Dumbledore said with a smile.

Lily joined the rest of the students in applauding. Potter was a prat, but he was a prat who could play Quidditch. And Lily wanted to see her school win.

"Mr. Potter, do stand up and collect your badge," Dumbledore said.

Lily watched James blink several times before nodding and getting out of his seat. The applause continued as he made his way up to the professor's table and a grin spread over James' face. By the time he accepted the badge from Dumbledore, he was smiling so enthusiastically that even Professor McGonagall managed a quick smile of her own.

"Excellent," Dumbledore said as James made his way back to his seat. "For those of you who are unfamiliar with Quidditch, Madame Pince has kindly ordered 20 extra copies of the ever-popular _Quidditch Through The Ages_, which will be available at the library. Madame Hooch will also be giving several presentations in the coming weeks."

Several of the first years looked quite relieved and nodded to one another.

"James will be in charge of organizing trials, though I would hope he does so within the next week or so," Dumbledore said.

James nodded and the headmaster continued.

"The teams from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be here in about a month. I shall be making more announcements as plans are firmly set. Now, then, enjoy your supper."


	6. Chapter 6

After Dumbledore's announcement, James found himself unable to finish a meal in the Great Hall. It started the moment Dumbledore finished speaking, when he was bombarded with congratulations from nearly every student at Hogwarts. A seventh-year Hufflepuff had even given him a congratulatory kiss on the cheek, which Sirius was still not letting him live down since the girl was somewhat unfortunate looking.

The questions had started the next morning. James had stayed up most of the night discussing trials and potential lineups with Sirius, but he had not decided how best to run the trials, and was not ready to schedule them yet. So, he had nothing to say the next morning when students bombarded him with questions about everything from when the trials were to what he was looking for in a seeker.

Since James did not have answers to their questions, his fellow students had taken to giving him unsolicited advice. By the third day of this, James had not managed to finish half a meal and was quickly losing his composure.

"Potter, if I may have a word."

Geoffery McCormick, a Ravenclaw Beater, was walking towards him and James repressed the urge to tell him to piss off. Instead, he tried to formulate a plausible reason he could not speak with Geoffery, but as everyone was heading to lunch James was at a loss.

Geoffery took his silence for consent and drew alongside James.

"I have heard that Durmstrang and Beauxbatons have very different playing styles. Have you considered how best to prepare for both teams-

"I'm going to worry about strategy after the trials. Once I've put together the best possible team, I'll start thinking strategy," James said, fighting the urge to tell Geoffery that he had played with Quidditch players from both schools while traveling with his parents, and didn't need to be told about their playing styles.

"Now, forgive me for saying so, but you're making a mistake there. You can't possibly pick the best players if you haven't settled on a strategy."

James tuned Geoffery out and started imagining creative ways to shut him up. Transfiguring him into some kind of an animal would work. Enlarging his tongue might be fun.

James was contemplating a way to permanently glue his lips together when he saw Lily Evans striding towards him with Sirius, Remus, and Peter in tow. She was walking so quickly that her cheeks were pink from effort and her hair was flying wildly behind her. When Lily looked like this, James was inevitably flustered. It was exactly how he imagined her looking after a good snog, and that thought made it next to impossible to concentrate on whatever she was saying. He knew he was supposed to be forgetting about Lily, but it had just occurred to him that her hair probably looked messy like that in bed.

James was attempting to reign in his imagination when Lily came to a stop in front of them and said,

"McCormick, you'll have to excuse me, but I need to speak with Potter."

She then fixed James with a glare that derailed his fantasy, at least for the moment. He now frantically tried to remember what he had done to upset her this time.

"Not now Lily, we're talking Quidditch and-

"It can wait. You spent half an hour talking Quidditich with him this morning. Surely, you've already given him your most important advice. And anyway, this is Quidditch, not rocket science. Potter can probably manage just fine without the whole school telling him how it ought to be done."

Geoffery just stared at Lily like she had grown a second head. When he finally found his voice he barely managed half a word before she cut him off again.

"Enough McCormick!" she snapped, standing just beneath him with her hands on her hips. "Potter and I are partners on an important project and he's not holding up his end, probably because people like you keep talking his ear off and leaving him no time for school. If you want to let your grades suffer for Quidditch, that's your choice. But I intend to get good marks, and I need Potter for that. So, continue it later, but I _will _talk to him now."

She stared up at Geoffery with flushed cheeks, narrowed eyes and her mouth pressed into a thin line. James thought she might just spit fire if Geoffery didn't leave off. James considered making a run for it and leaving McCormick to his fate, but he realized that he had forgotten to water their plant for the last two days. He probably did owe Lily some sort of apology.

"We'll talk later, but it looks like Evans may go spare if she doesn't speak with me."

Geoffery shot Lily an irritated look before stomping off, but Lily ignored him and turned to James.

"Now listen Potter-

"Leave it alone Evans," Sirius cut in. "I didn't help you find James so you could replace McCormick's badgering with your own."

"Do I have to explain the importance of this project again, Black? Because if I do-

"Oh it's a sodding plant! Why don't you just-

"I'm sorry I forgot to water it," James interrupted them both. "You're right, it's a big part of our grade, and I need to do my part."

Lily stopped and gaped at James.

"What?"

"I said I'm sorry for not watering the plant," he sighed. "I'll go water it now."

"But it's lunch," Sirius protested.

"And I doubt I'll have a chance to eat anything. Or do you think the whole bloody school will suddenly forget about an international Quidditch tournament?"

His friends shrugged, but Lily continued staring intently at him.

"I suppose you wouldn't have had much of a chance to eat," she said. "Take these."

She pulled several pieces of fruit out of her bag.

"I'm not taking your food, Evans."

"Yes you bloody well are," she said. "If you continue missing meals you're going to perform poorly in Quidditch and Herbology, and I'd prefer you do well at both. Besides, I can get more at lunch. I meant to snack on them before last period, but I wasn't hungry."

James was somewhat floored. Since when did Lily Evans worry about his well-being? He nearly asked her, but she was glaring rather fiercely again so he decided it might be best to just accept the fruit.

"Er thanks, I have been getting hungry."

Lily looked him over, then rounded suddenly on Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

"Aren't you lot supposed to be his mates? Has it really escaped your notice that he isn't getting to eat?"

Sirius snorted.

"Settle down, Mum."

"Piss off Black!" Lily snapped. "Why don't you make yourself useful and go water your own bloody plant. Remus and Peter, you ought bring lunch for them to the greenhouses so you can all eat in peace."

Without another word, she took off for the Great Hall, leaving the boys behind her in silence.

"Well…" Sirius said at last. "Evans is more mental than usual."

"She gave me food."

"Like I said, mental. But, you probably better water that plant. If you don't, she'll either kill you or force feed you."

"Yeah."

"I'll come with you though."

"Then, Pete and I will get food," Remus said. James nodded and he and Sirius took off for the greenhouses.

"I had better get this trial sorted," James said as they crossed the lawns. "I just keep coming back to the numbers problem. If all the houses try out at once, there's no way I can observe everyone as closely as I'd like."

"I think your first idea was the best. Hold trials for each house. Put together an ideal team from each house, then hold a final trial. There's no other way to go about it."

"True, though I still have to plan the damn things," James said. He rattled off the drills he had planned on running at the trials as they strode towards the greenhouses. Sirius opened the door and James went to find his plant.

"Oh, no wonder Evans is brassed off," he said. "The thing's wilting. It was only two days without water, damn plant."

"I'm glad Meadows is just ignoring me and doing the whole thing herself."

James watered the plant and sat down at one of the tables. He pulled out a quill and parchment and began jotting down notes about the Quidditch trials, pausing every now and again to run ideas by Sirius. Then, they set to work making flyers about the trials to post around the school. They had made about four when Remus and Peter arrived with food.

"What on earth are those?" Remus asked as he set several sandwiches on the table.

"Quidditch flyers obviously," Sirius said.

"Obviously?" Remus squinted at the parchment. "They're illegible."

Sirius started to argue, but James stood up and surveyed them again. His handwriting was a disaster and Sirius' wasn't much better. He had a feeling he could only read them because the handwriting was familiar.

''They'll be fine. James' flyers worked for the Gyrffindor trials last year," Sirius was saying.

"You're joking! Do you have any idea how many people came up to me and asked me what the flyer said? Once I had told about a dozen people the rest figured it out by word of mouth!"

James groaned. Remus was right and the flyers had been a wasted effort. He had initially been excited to be the captain of the Hogwarts team, but he was beginning to think he might have been happier playing Chaser and leaving the rest of this nonsense to someone else.

"I'll do them," Peter said quietly. "I drew most of the map, and it's neat enough. I don't mind."

"Thanks Wormtail, but I shouldn't make you do that. I have to do at least eight, one for each house and four for the Great Hall. Then, they'll be more all year. I'll just have to learn some bloody penmanship."

"I don't mind doing them all," Peter said.

"Thanks but-

"Shut up. You're being an idiot."

Peter took out a sheet of parchment and set to work copying James' flyer. Eventually James managed to close his mouth and chuckle.

"Thanks, I owe you."

"Since I copy half your homework, I'd say you don't."

James opened his mouth again, but this time Remus told him to shut up before he could say anything else.

Peter finished the flyers just before the lunch break ended. James gave one to each of his friends and handed them out to the prefects of each house. Then, with most of the Great Hall watching him, James posted his own flyer at the front of the hall.

_Hogwarts Quidditch Trials_

_Trials will be held for each house on Sunday. Results will be posted Monday at breakfast. Those selected will be invited to attend the final trial on Wednesday._

_Sunday Schedule_

_Gryffindoor: 9:00 AM_

_Hufflepuff: 11:15 AM_

_Ravenclaw: 2:00 PM_

_Slytherin: 4:15 PM_

_The final trial will be at 4:00 PM on Wednesday._

_Anyone who disrupts the trials will be forced to leave._

_Since eating is necessary for decent Quidditch playing, your captain will not discuss Quidditch until he has cleaned his plate._

Satisfied, James turned away from his flyer and gathered his books for class, ignoring the pandemonium in his wake.


	7. Chapter 7

Lily had wanted to see the information about the Quidditch trials, but when she tried to approach one of the flyers, she was knocked to the floor by a Hufflepuff seventh-year and stepped on by a few Ravenclaw second-years.

She had quite nearly lost her temper and blasted them away from the flyer, but Alice had emerged from the crowd looking pale.

"It's this Sunday," she whispered. "That doesn't give me much time at all."

Lily squeezed Alice's shoulder.

"You're going to be fine-Ouch!"

She had gotten slammed by another seventh-year.

"Come on, let's get out of here before we get trampled to death."

Marlene grabbed them both by the elbows and they retreated out of the hall.

"I'm not going to try out," Alice said as they walked toward the dungeons for potions. "People are absolutely mad about it, and I'm just not good enough, and-and- I just can't!"

"Yes you can," Lily told her. "People are mad about it, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try out. Alice, you've been practicing all summer, and you shouldn't let that go to waste just because you're nervous!"

"Besides, what's the worst that could happen?" Marlene asked. "You try out and you don't make the team, so what? Most people who try out won't make it."

"Everyone will be watching! It won't be like normal house trials. The whole school will be there!"

Lily thought Alice had raised a rather good point. She would be terrified to try out for a team in front of the entire school. But, Marlene shrugged brushed the concern aside.

"Everyone's going to be watching Quidditch all day long. You think they're going to remember each person's performance? It would be impossible."

They opened the door to the potions room and started setting their things next to cauldrons. Alice sighed and shook her head.

"I wanted to, but I really can't. It's just too much."

Her face had grown even paler and Lily thought her eyes were starting well up. She reached out to put an arm around her, when a voice made her jump.

"What's the matter?"

Lily had expected everyone to be in the Great Hall, but James Potter was sitting in his usual spot near the back of the dungeons.

"What can't you do, Alice?" he asked.

"I…uhh, well, I-

"She's trying to talk herself out of trying out for the Quidditch team," Marlene said.

Alice looked slightly horrified, and Lily thought Marlene must have lost her mind mentioning it to Potter.

"Why?" he asked Alice, who couldn't seem to find her voice. Instead, she just looked helplessly between Marlene and Lily.

"She's nervous," Marlene said.

Lily expected James to laugh. Instead he just looked at Alice for a moment, and then gave her a small smile.

"Of course. Everybody who tries out will be nervous. That shouldn't stop you."

"It's not just that," Alice said. "I have never even played on a house team, let alone a school-wide one. I don't have the necessary experience. Besides, Frank Longbottom should be the Keeper anyway."

"Maybe," James said. He chewed on his lip and drummed his hands against the side of his cauldron for a moment.

"Maybe. But, I've seen you practicing, back when you were dating Hamilton and he used to play with you. I'll be honest, you weren't as good as Longbottom last year. But I assume you practiced over the summer."

Alice nodded.

"So you may be better than him now, who knows?" James said. "Before all this, I was going to talk to you about trying out for the Gryffindoor team."

Alice raised her eyebrows and her mouth dropped open.

"Look, you're plenty good. I can't guarantee that you'll make the team, but you certainly belong at the trial."

"You're just saying that."

James rolled his eyes.

"I'm not. I don't have the patience for that today," he said. "You were good last time I saw you, and you probably got better, so I expect you to show up on Sunday. I want all the best players available."

Alice simply stared at James as the rest of the students started to file into the classroom.

"Thanks," she managed at last.

James shrugged and started opening his potions kit.

Lily felt herself starting to smile at James and immediately turned away. She was in a state of shock. Potter had been nice, encouraging even. This was the second time he had stunned her in one day. Earlier, he had apologized for neglecting their Herbology project, and now this. Where was the Potter that mocked people's fears or brushed off their concerns about schoolwork?

Lily was getting downright uncomfortable. It occurred to her that she could no longer predict James Potter. Not only that, but her responses to him were just as surprising as his behavior. She had offered him food earlier, like he was someone she ought to take care of. And now she wanted to smile, or even thank him for making Alice feel better. And earlier this week she had actually apologized for snapping at him, something she had done regularly and without apology for the last five years of her life!

Perhaps, she thought, Potter was changing. But earlier this week, he had been dragged into the Great Hall by Filch for being on the grounds after hours and missing the feast, proving that the old insufferable Potter was still very much alive and well. After all, Lily couldn't understand what kind of self-absorbed prat wears athletic gear, some of which he had still been attempting to put on, to a feast where the headmaster was making an important announcement.

As soon as Lily remembered that night, her mind flashed to the perfectly toned stomach muscles she had glimpsed as Potter struggled to dress himself.

That was too much. Lily rested her head on her hand and tried to collect her thoughts.

"Alright Lils?" Marlene asked. "You're turning a bit red."

"I'm fine, just-er-a little warm."

Marlene raised her eyebrows and Lily looked back at her, begging her to drop it. Marlene shrugged and turned back to James.

"So, do you have people in mind for the team?"

"Come on, you know I can't talk about that."

"We're cousins."

He rolled his eyes.

"Last time I brought that up you said there was obviously some kind of mistake because I was too stupid to be related to you."

"Only because you were trying to convince me to be a lookout while you and Sirius stole a motorbike-

"Borrowed, Marley, borrowed. We were going to give the bike back."

"Maybe," Sirius said, as he strolled into the classroom and took a seat beside James. "I might have held on to it. I've always wanted one."

Lily, who was finally starting to collect herself, sank her head back into her hands. Why on earth was she attempting to understand the behavior of a boy who stole motorbikes with Sirius Black? She must have lost her mind.

Before she had more time to reflect on her insanity, Professor Slughorn squeezed himself through the door and into the dungeons. Lily resolved to clear her mind of Potter and focus on potions.

"I know, you're all excited about Quidditch, I am myself, but we do still have lessons," Professor Slughorn said as he smiled sympathetically at his students. "Please pass forward last night's essay."

Lily handed forward her essay and returned the professor's smile. During his lecture, Slughorn went over the challenges to making a blood-replenishing potion, thus reassuring Lily that she had indeed included them all in her essay. Then, he told the class to set to work on the potion.

Lily found brewing potions relaxing. It required concentration and attention to detail, but it was perfectly predictable and logical.

Initially, she had been nervous about taking NEWT-level potions this year, but that was due to Severus and not the subject matter. He had attempted to pass her notes the first two days of class, but she promptly tossed them in the trash. He had done nothing the last two days, and Lily hoped he had finally given up.

She stirred her potion counter-clockwise five times and then looked at her watch. It needed to sit for exactly six minutes. She looked up and saw that she and Severus were the only ones who had completed that much of the potion. He glanced over at her and Lily looked away quickly. She checked her watch. Still another five minutes. Trying to make sure she looked anywhere but at Severus, she scanned her fellow classmates' potions.

Sirius Black had just finished his and had started needling James, whose potion was a creamy color instead of clear. Alice finished hers and Marlene swore quietly after she stirred clockwise.

"It's cocked up now," she muttered.

"Maybe not," Lily said. She leaned over Marlene's cauldron and examined her potion. She had once read that you could compensate for stirring in the wrong direction by stirring twice in the correct direction, provided it wouldn't change the potion's consistency. Marlene's potion was too thick if anything, so Lily was about to tell her to stir counter clockwise twice when a sheet of parchment sailed onto her desk.

"Oh hell," she whispered.

"My potion's that bad?"

"No, of course not. Severus is passing notes again. Just stir twice counter clockwise, it should be fine."

Lily sighed and picked up the piece of parchment. Severus caught her eye and mouthed "please" at her. Lily grit her teeth and shook her head. She marched towards the wastebasket and dropped the note in it.

On her way back to her cauldron, Severus grabbed her elbow.

"Lily, please, just listen. I-

"There is nothing you can say," she whispered.

"Lily, come on-

"No, you come on!" she struggled to keep her voice at a whisper. "We've been over this a dozen times. Nothing's going to change unless you change your opinion and your friends. I doubt you'll do either."

"Look, if Potter hadn't-

"Potter! You're going to make this about Potter!"

Lily hadn't meant to speak above a whisper, but she couldn't help herself. The mention of James nearly sent her over the edge. She took a deep breath and looked quickly around the classroom. Most people were working intently, but James had stopped stirring his potion and looked their way. Lily could feel her cheeks growing warm.

"He-

"What he did had nothing to do with what you said," she whispered, jerking her elbow away from Severus. "Now leave me the hell alone. You've already caused me to ruin my potion."

She walked quickly back to her desk, uncorked her vial of blood, and put one drop into the potion. It wasn't entirely ruined, but it wasn't going to perfect either. And she could practically feel Potter's' eyes boring into the back of her head. She fought the urge to fling her vial of blood at Severus.

Instead, she started to spoon her potion into another vial for Slughorn. It would be an E, not an O, and that was all Severus' fault. Her hands were shaking so badly that her potion slopped down the sides of the vial, and that only made her more furious. By the time she had managed to clean it off and drop it on Slughorn's desk, she felt like screaming. That was when she noticed a small, green object sail past her and into Severus' cauldron.

Lily turned around and saw James smirking. She opened her mouth to reprimand him, but the sound of hissing water stopped her. When she turned back towards the front of the class, she saw Severus' cauldron had turned a nasty orange shade and started boiling over, completely staining his robes.

He yelped and jumped back, slipping on the potion and crashing into the cauldron behind him. He landed on the floor in a puddle of orange liquid. Most of the class started roaring with laughter.

"My goodness!" Slughorn made his way out from behind his desk and pointed his wand at Severus' cauldron. The liquid vanished and Severus stood up, wringing out his robes.

"Now settle down," Slughorn said. "What on earth happened m'boy?"

"I don't know. It seemed fine, so someone must have thrown something in it," Severus snapped, glaring over in the direction of James and Sirius.

"Well now, I think that may be rather far-fetched" Slughorn said. "But I'll let you come by my office tonight and brew it again."

He clapped Severus on the back and went around collecting the remaining potions. Lily saw James return a sprig of hemlock back to his kit and clenched her fists. She considered reporting him to Slughorn, but Severus had made it plain he didn't want her assistance, so she wasn't going to give it. He and Potter could carry on their childish fight without her.

Because Potter was still Potter, she realized, and he was never going to grow up. And worse still, Severus was still Severus, and he was never going let go of his fascination with dark magic and his evil friends.

Those two realizations made Lily so miserable that she barely managed to glare at James before she stormed out of the classroom to cry in the first bathroom she found.


	8. Chapter 8

Author' Note: I do apologize because both this chapter and chapter 9 are short on Lily and James interaction. Unfortunately, that's just necessary for the plot. But if you bear with me, I'll make it up to you in chapter 10. Also, thanks to everyone who has reviewed. It absolutely makes my day when I see that "Review Alert" e-mail.

* * *

><p>By the time he made it to dinner, James was exhausted. He had begun the afternoon in a terrible mood because of Lily, who barely made it to Transfiguration on time and sat beside Marlene and Alice with red eyes. After lessons, they had disappeared into the girls' dormitory and Christine Waters had come down and announced that Lily was "blubbering about being dumped by that greasy Slytherin".<p>

James wasn't sure what upset him more: the fact that Snape had upset Lily, or the fact that he had gotten himself involved in it. He'd managed to ignore Snape's previous attempts at getting Lily's attention, but this time he could have sworn he'd heard his name, and he could just imagine Snape blaming the whole thing on him. While James didn't consider that day his finest, he was not about to accept responsibility for Snape's blood purity fanaticism.

But then again, James reminded himself, he was not supposed to be thinking about Lily. His chances were as slim as ever seeing as how she had looked at him like she wanted him dead when she left the potions classroom. Obviously, thinking about Lily wasn't going to do him any sort of good. So, he turned his attention to plans for the Quiddich team and found he was actually grateful for the distraction of students approaching him to discuss the trials.

He found the distraction so pleasant that he was even going to ignore his own rule about eating dinner, but Sirius was in no mood to be accommodating.

"Can you read?" Sirius asked two Hufflepuffs who had stopped by the table to discuss passing drills. "Sign says not to bother him until he's eaten. Get the hell out of here."

The Hufflepuffs beat a hasty retreat, but they were soon replaced by the Slytherin chaser Norman Flint, who ignored Sirius' threats.

"Shut up Black! Now look here, Potter. It puts Slytherin at a disadvantage to try out so late in the day-

"_Engorgio_!"

Sirius, who did not take kindly to being ignored, flicked his wand and enlarged Flint's lips until the resulting lisp made him completely incomprehensible. Flint attempted to retaliate with a spell of his own, but he was unable to pronounce the incantation properly and retreated to the hospital wing with lips the size of sausages.

James had made it most of the way through his dinner without further interruption when Julia Taylor tapped him on the shoulder.

"Can I sit down if I promise not to mention Quidditch?"

"Of course, shove over Padfoot."

They scooted down the table and Julia took a seat beside James.

"I know you're very busy, but I was actually hoping for your help," Julia said, giving James a shy smile.

"How may I be of service?"

"It's the Transfiguration homework. There's a couple questions about human transfiguration that I just can't seem to get, but you seemed to know all about it when McGonagall was asking questions in class."

"Let me see what I can do."

James flashed Julia his best grin and she dug her homework out of her bag. James finished the last of his chicken, then shoved his plate to the side to make room for Julia's books.

"Don't mind me," Sirius said, as James nudged his plate into Sirius'.

"I won't."

James had no trouble with Julia's questions. The theory of human transfiguration made perfect sense to him, seeing as how he did it himself every month. Instead, he put most of his concentration into flirting with Julia. He leaned close to her as they talked, brushed her arm at every given opportunity, and slipped in as many jokes as possible. Julia was so receptive to his efforts that James suspected the Transfiguration questions had simply been an excuse to speak with him.

"Thank you so much James," she said when they had finished. "I don't know how I'll ever thank you."

James thought quickly. Asking her for a late-night snog in the common room would be too forward, but he wasn't going to let a comment like that pass. It was too good an opening. He racked his brain for a moment, before he hit on an idea.

"Actually, there just may be something you could do," he said, raising his eyebrows at her and smiling.

"Oh?"

"My mum's birthday is coming up, and dad gave me a catalog from her favorite store and told me to order something. It's got tons of witch's clothes and jewelry, and I'm at a bit of a loss. Do you think you could come by the Gryffindoor common room and have a look at it with me?"

"Sure, when were you thinking?"

"Well, I'm sure you're busy tonight…" he paused, but Julia interrupted him.

"I might have been, but you're homework help freed up some of my time," she smiled and tugged on some of her golden hair. "How does nine sound?"

"Perfect, you know where our common room is?"

"I do."

"Then I'll be waiting outside the portrait for you," he said.

"Alright then, see you later, James."

"Bye Julia."

She held his eyes for a moment, before giving him one last smile and leaving the table.

"Your mum's birthday's not for a month," Sirius said when she was out of earshot.

"Well, dad sent the catalog in the post yesterday."

"True enough," Sirius chuckled.

After dinner James killed time in the common room until nine o'clock, when he went to the portrait and let in Julia. She took a great interest in the catalog of clothes for his mother, and finally helped James settle on a shawl. Then they sat and played exploding snap in front of the fire.

James loved the Gryffindoor common room. He thought it was what really made Hogwarts feel like a home. Throughout the rest of the castle, students were rushing to classes, focused on food, or even feuding with members of other houses. But in the common room, his fellow Gryffindoors would relax and get to know one another. It was in the common room that James could talk Quidditch with a seventh year, make a group of third years laugh, or teach a Muggle-born first year something about gobstones.

At the moment, he could hear Alice Manning helping Peter with Herbology and a group of fifth-years discussing their crushes on Sirius.

"You were just distracted that round," Julia said, her brown eyes warm with amusement.

"I'm sorry, but those girls behind me were talking about how to get Sirius to snog them."

Julia laughed.

"Well, you should give them advice. He's your best friend after all."

"No, that would-

James heard a muffled sob and saw a third-year named Elise Hamilton rush towards the girls' dormitory carrying a letter.

"What happened?" he asked two girls following her.

"She got a letter saying her cousin turned up dead," one of the girls said quietly. "He had disappeared two weeks ago. His mum, her aunt, she's a muggle and was killed a few months ago."

James grimaced. He remembered the story in the paper. He couldn't remember the names of Elise's aunt or cousin. No one knew who had killed her aunt earlier, which didn't bode well for finding her cousin's killer. James reckoned that whoever it was was associated with the dark wizard that people kept whispering about.

James' father, who had retired from the post of Head of Magical Law Enforcement just a few years ago, was trying to collect information on the wizard. His father, like Dumbledore, believed that many of the muggle and muggle-born disappearances were all linked to this particular wizard.

"God, that's terrible," Julia was saying.

"Don't go anywhere just yet," James told the girl who had broken the news.

"Sirius!" he shouted. "Run up and get our Honeydukes stash."

"What for?" Sirius looked up from his task of distracting Remus from studying.

"Someone died."

Sirius looked rather stunned but he headed up to the dormitory. When he returned he passed James the bag of Honeydukes sweets. James took out a few Chocolate Frogs for Peter, then handed the rest of the bag to the girl.

"Tell her these are compliments of the Marauders and we wish her family the best," James said. He couldn't bring anyone back from the dead, or take revenge on an unidentified murderer, so all he had to offer was candy. The thought made James feel slightly inadequate, but every girl he knew did love sweets.

"Thanks," the girl nodded and took off towards the dormitories.

"Who bloody died?" Sirius asked when she was out of earshot.

"Elise Hamilton's cousin, the one that disappeared a few weeks ago."

"Didn't her aunt die during the summer?" Peter asked.

James nodded and they all stood silently for a moment. Even if James could have thought of a joke to lighten the mood, he knew it wouldn't be appropriate. But he desperately wanted to cut into the miserable tension that had suddenly filled the common room. He could sense everyone felt as helpless as he did.

"Well," Julia sighed at last. "It was sweet of you to give her the candy."

She gave James' shoulder a squeeze.

"Not much else I could do."

"Well of course not," Julia said.

"Someone ought to be able to do something," he said. "All those muggle and muggle-born killings have to be connected."

"Perhaps," Julia said, "But leave it to the ministry. There's nothing you can do from here."

James thought about explaining that he wanted to do something so badly that he had half a mind to drop out of school and start hunting whoever was behind all this. He almost thought he could catch the bastard too, provided he had the Marauders helping him. But Julia would probably find that idea crazy, so he settled for nodding and shrugging.

"It's getting late," he told her. "I should probably walk you back to your common room."

"Probably," Julia said.

He gave a wave to his friends and took off towards the portrait hole. He was grateful that Julia decided to change the subject and discuss the first week of lessons. It gave him a chance to redirect his thoughts to lighter subjects, and eventually, they fell back into an easy banter.

"Well, here we are," Julia said when they had stopped outside the Ravenclaw common room.

"Right then. Well, we're going to need an exploding snap rematch. I'm not sure how else I'll recover my dignity."

Julia giggled.

"Fine then, I'll let you have another chance."

"After the Quidditch trials?" James asked.

"Sounds good."

"Alright, goodnight then."

"Goodnight."

James let his eyes linger on her for a moment and she blushed. He gave her a quick smile and then set off for the Gryffindoor common room.


	9. Chapter 9

Lily normally would not have attended an entire day of Quidditch trials. It was just the first week, but she already felt overwhelmed by her homework. She would have preferred to watch the final trials the next week, or even just skip the trials altogether. But she knew Alice was terrified and needed all the support Lily could give.

So she and Marlene followed the crowd of students and professors to the pitch on Sunday morning. They found seats near the top of the bleachers and Lily saw Alice and the other players standing off to the side of the pitch.

At about fifteen minutes to nine, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin climbed towards Lily and Marlene.

"Is there room for us on this bench?" Remus asked.

They nodded and shifted over to make room for the boys. Lily didn't mind sitting by Remus and Peter. She rather liked Remus and Peter hardly spoke, but she figured Sirius Black would join them soon enough and Lily wasn't sure how she felt about that. Sometimes she found Black amusing in spite of herself, but more often she thought he was arrogant, crass, and self-absorbed. But, Lily reminded herself, there weren't any Slytherins sitting near them so there was a reasonable chance Black would behave.

Marlene immediately started prying the boys for information about the trials. She figured, correctly in Lily's opinion, that James had discussed his plans for the trials with his friends. However, if James had given them any information they certainly weren't sharing it.

"We're not telling you James' favorites," Peter said when Marlene asked which players James was expecting to perform well.

Marlene frowned, but Lily thought she might be able to break Peter.

"So you admit he has favorites?" she asked.

"I mean I-

"Even before we found out about the tournament he knew Gryffindoor would need a Keeper, so he must have had someone in mind."

Peter opened and shut his mouth like a fish out of water, but Remus just laughed.

"We're not saying anything," he said. "We took the Marauder's oath."

Lily was about to remind them that the Marauder's oath didn't actually mean anything, when Marlene nudged her and pointed to the pitch.

"There they are, it should be starting soon!"

Lily could just make out James and Sirius walking across the pitch carrying a large trunk. They stopped a few yards away from the players and set the trunk down. Then Sirius clapped James on the shoulder and started towards the stands. As he left, Professor Dumbledore and Madame Hooch approached James.

Lily couldn't tell what they were saying. In fact, she could barely see them, and she was reaching into her bag for her binoculars when Sirius bounded up the bleachers towards them.

"This is going to be excellent," he said. "Budge over Marley."

"Why hullo Sirius. Good to see you as well. I'm doing fine, thanks for asking," Marlene said.

"My most humble apologies. Good morning Ms. McKinnon, Ms. Evans. I do hope this beautiful day finds you well. I was hoping we could waste some time on pleasantries rather than focus on the _school-wide Quidditch trials_ that are about to start. Better?"

Marlene rolled her eyes and scooted aside so Sirius could settle himself between her and Remus.

Lily pulled her binoculars out of her bag. She raised them towards the field and started to adjust their focus. At the moment she was zoomed in on a player who seemed to have slightly outgrown his Quidditch uniform from last year. Though there were worse things than too-small Quidditch uniforms, Lily thought, as she zoomed out enough to see the fabric pull across toned chest muscles. She moved her binoculars slightly to the left and watched his arm muscles flex as he twirled his broom around. As far as Lily was concerned, he could stay in last year's uniform for as long as he wanted.

Deciding she had probably ogled enough, Lily zoomed out on her binoculars and nearly shrieked. It was Potter! She had just spent the last few minutes admiring James Potter. The only thing that made the situation tolerable to her was that he would never know about it.

Lily started to move her binoculars to someone—anyone—else, but James had started speaking and she decided it didn't make since to ignore him, seeing as how he was running the trials.

"Good morning, we're going to get started now," he said, his voice carried over the crowd by a sonorous charm.

"I've only got one rule for those of you in the stands. Don't disrupt the trials. So stay off the pitch, don't throw things near the players, don't cast any spells at them, I'm sure you catch my drift. If you do disrupt the trials, I'll throw you out."

He paused and turned back to the players.

"Right then. We're going to start with laps."

A few players got on their brooms, and one boy even kicked off the ground, but last year's players had dropped their brooms and were looking expectantly at James.

"Ah," he surveyed the confusion in front of him. "Right. By laps, I mean running laps. As in, on foot."

He put his broom down, blew a whistle, and started jogging around the pitch. The players fell into step behind him and after a few laps he started jogging backwards to survey the group. Eventually, he led them to one edge of the pitch and had them do a series of sprints across it.

"Why all this running?" Lily asked. "I mean Quidditch is all about flying not running, isn't it?"

"He's doing it to see who's in shape," Sirius said. "A long match requires a lot of endurance."

"And James is bloody mad about fitness," Peter added. "He gets up early in the morning to do pushups, sprint up and down the bleachers, and just generally make himself miserable."

Lily raised her eyebrows. She had always thought Potter's athleticism came as naturally to him as everything else seemed to. She supposed that was a rather silly assumption, staying in shape always took effort, but it was difficult to imagine James having to really try at something.

In lessons he got Os on exams he hadn't studied for and correctly answered questions without paying attention to the professor. Outside the classroom, he was a Quidditch prodigy with girls practically lining up to snog him. The knowledge that he was disciplined enough to wake up early and run up and down bleachers was surprising. And however much she may not want to admit, Lily couldn't help but admire him for it.

"Look at that girl!" Marlene elbowed Lily and pointed towards a tiny, blonde girl straggling behind the other runners. "She's barely keeping up."

"I saw that," Remus said. "I'm surprised to see someone so young out there. I'm pretty sure she's a first year."

"She's an idiot," Sirius said. "She's going to pass out midway through the trial or get knocked out with a bludger."

"Looks like Prongs is going to talk to her."

James had blown his whistle and started striding over to the girl.

"Take a few minutes," he told the other players before flicking his wand at his throat.

Lily zoomed in on her binoculars to watch the exchange. James looked irritated, but he arranged his face into a smile as he approached the girl. He shook her hand and then started speaking to her. As he talked, the girl's eyes narrowed and she stuck her chin out. When James stopped speaking, she said just one word. Even without hearing her voice Lily could tell the word was "no".

"She's not going to leave!" Sirius said.

Lily zoomed in on her binoculars and pressed them closer to her face. James looked taken aback. He ran his hands through his hair and started speaking again. The girls just stuck her chin out further. When he had finished, she started talking again, gesturing briefly towards the faculty in the stands and back at the castle.

"I wish I could hear what she's saying to him," Marlene said. "Because he doesn't look happy."

James was speaking again, gesturing more forcefully this time, but the girl was undaunted. She took a step closer to him, her chin still out, and started arguing again. When she finished, James looked up at the sky for a moment and chewed his lower lip.

Sirius gasped and elbowed Marlene.

"He's going to let her stay!"

"He's not!"

"He is," Remus said. "That's the look he has after Sirius has talked him into doing something completely stupid."

"Shut up, Moony."

It appeared that both boys were right. James looked back down at the girl and ran his hand through his hair. He spoke a few more words, clapped her on the shoulder, and walked off shaking his head. He flicked his wand and his voice boomed out across the stadium again.

" We're going to do some passing drills. Get on your brooms and head up to the goal posts."

Lily was finding it difficult to focus on Alice as the trial progressed. Alice seemed to be doing fine, and Lily's interest was piqued by the first-year girl, who was performing spectacularly. She also found her eyes drawn to James. She would have thought he'd be less captivating since he wasn't playing, but Lily found her eyes continuing to drift back to him. She supposed he simply had a presence on the Quidditch pitch, regardless of whether or not he was actually playing.

When he announced the start of Keeper tryouts, Alice and a fifth year named Daemon Franklin came forward to try out for the position. James instructed them to block shots fired by the players trying out to be Chasers.

Franklin went first. He turned out to be a decent, but far from extraordinary Keeper. He stopped ten of the fifteen shots thrown his way, but Lily thought many of those shots were mediocre. She thought last year's Chasers, Tyler Helms and Jenny Wong, were the only ones who had fired off truly challenging shots.

James blew the whistle.

"Manning, you're up!"

Alice pulled up to the front of the goalposts, not looking nearly as nervous as she was earlier. Lily figured Alice was as unimpressed with most of the Chasers as she was.

"We're going to have a rough time finding a decent replacement for Wong when she graduates this year," Remus said.

"And I hope Alice is better than Franklin, because he was nothing to write home about," Sirius added.

"Shhh, she's starting!" Marlene and Lily fixed their binoculars on Alice, who had just stopped the first goal easily. She stopped the next six shots fired at her, and ended up saving all but two of the fifteen shots.

"She's got it then!" Lily said. "She's made it to the next round!"

"Probably. All that's left is the scrimmage, so as long as she doesn't just fall apart there, she should be fine," Marlene said.

Next, James ran a drill designed to test Seekers and Beaters. He set the snitch loose and assigned the Seekers to catch it. Then he split the Beaters into two groups, one group was charged with protecting the Seekers while the other group attempted to hit them with bludgers.

"So our crazy little first year is trying out for Seeker," Sirius said, as the young girl circled around in search of the snitch.

Lily ignored the rest of the players and trained her binoculars on the girl. Lily had grown a bit attached to her during the trial, and was rooting for her to outperform last year's Seeker, Rob Hastings. But the girl had only been in the air about five minutes when the first bludger came spinning towards her back.

"Oh God!" Lily winced as it crashed into the girl's shoulder blade, knocking her flat onto her broom.

James flew over near her, but backed away again as the girl steadied herself and continued flying. Just minutes later she flattened herself to her broom and sped towards the other side of the pitch. She dodged a bludger, stretched out her hand, then pulled up triumphantly with the snitch.

"Blimey!" Sirius said. "Not bad at all. Hastings must be pissed off."

James ran the drill four more times, and each time the girl caught the snitch first. For the last catch, she and Rob Hastings had both been racing towards the snitch when it dropped suddenly towards the ground. Hastings appeared to lose sight of it, but the girl plunged into a spectacular dive and came up with the snitch in hand. She then flew over to James and dropped the snitch into his hand with a smirk reminiscent of his own. Lily watched him suppress a quick smile and make a note on his clipboard.

James finished the trial with a scrimmage, rotating players around the two teams periodically. Alice was playing well and it seemed clear she would make it to the next phase of the trial, so Lily turned her attention to the blonde first year.

She had been flying around the pitch for about ten minutes when she leaned forward o her broom again. Lily looked up and saw the snitch floating near Rob Hastings, who was also flying towards it.

"Oh Merlin they're going to-

People in the crowd shrieked as Rob Hastings and the girl collided in mid-air. The girl went toppling to one side of her broom. Lily felt as though she was watching in slow motion as the girl's hands flew off her broom handle and she dangled by her legs for a split second, before tumbling into the air.

Lily screamed, frantically moving her binoculars to find the girl again. She barely saw the streak of red before she heard a resounding thump.

"Fucking hell!"

James' voice echoed through the stadium as he collided with the girl, who landed halfway over his shoulder. His broom was spiraling out of control as he kept one arm around the girl, pressing her to his chest. A few more choice words echoed around the stadium as he fought to steer with one hand despite the weight of two bodies distributed unevenly about the broom. He got control of the broom not long before they hit the ground and they skidded onto the grass.

"Are you alright?"

James climbed off the broom with the girl, and sat her on the grass. Dumbledore, McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey were jogging over to them. The girl seemed unable to answer. She was clutching her chest and wheezing.

"Come on, talk to me. What's wrong?"

James looked positively frantic. He had knelt on the ground beside the girl with one arm around her, rubbing her shoulders. She continued to cough and wheeze.

"Alrigh…" she hacked out a last. "Snitch."

"What the bleeding-

"I have the snitch!"

She seemed to have found her voice. She lifted her arm shakily and dropped the snitch onto the ground beside her.

James' mouth simply hung open and the crowd broke into a thunderous applause.

* * *

><p><em>I just updated because one of the reviewers pointed out I had been misspelling Dumbledore...yikes! Please do let me know about these things. I really appreciate it!<em>


	10. Chapter 10

James had no problem with girls. He had no problems with girls playing Quidditch. He did, however, have a problem with girls getting themselves killed while playing Quidditch. And that, he worried, was exactly what would happen if he let Emma Robbins play Seeker on the Hogwarts team.

James groaned and buried his head in his hands. It was two in the morning on Wednesday night and he was absolutely exhausted. He had nearly put together the school's team, but he couldn't decide what to do about Emma. And to top if off, he still had to write legible flyers to post around the school tomorrow.

It didn't seem so bad to let her advance to the second phase of trials. She had performed spectacularly on Sunday and completely shown up Hastings at every opportunity. It would have been absurd not to let her advance. James was sure someone would outperform her on Wednesday.

No one did. But, Emma nearly had her nose broken by a bludger. She'd been bleeding like mad during the scrimmage, but she didn't let him fix her nose until after she caught the snitch. And James couldn't help but admire that. In fact, he was positively thrilled with it. If it were just the Gryffindoor house team, he wouldn't have thought twice about making her the Seeker.

The problem, at least in his eyes, was Durmstrang. The girls at Beauxbatons were fast, and certainly a force to be reckoned with, but Durmstrang played rough and brutally. Rob Hastings, a somewhat skinny fifth-year, had knocked Emma off her broom. James was afraid a crash with a burly Durmstrang seventh-year might kill her on impact. And what about a bludger whacked by one of their Beaters? He was sure they'd pick absolute beasts for those positions.

And what, he asked himself, would happen if he didn't manage to catch her next time she fell off her broom? Half the school had told him how impressive it was, and James was rather pleased with himself, but a small voice in the back of his mind reminded him that she may well have died if he had been on the other side of the pitch.

He rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses and shook his head. He ought to call it a night and delay the announcement of the team, but he had promised the whole sodding school he'd have it done.

"Fucking hell," he muttered and sank his head back into his hands.

A small giggle nearly knocked him out of his chair.

"Are you talking to yourself, Potter?"

James blinked several times and stared at Lily Evans, who was making her way down the stairs in a light pink bathrobe.

"What are you doing up?"

He knew his tone must have been harsher than he meant for it to be, because she knit her brows together and said rather tightly,

"I could ask you that."

James sighed.

"I'm working on the Quidditch team."

"At two in the morning?"

He grimaced.

"I said at the trials that I would have it up by tomorrow, didn't I?"

"You did."

Lily settled into a chair near him and James saw that she was carrying her Transfiguration textbook and several sheets of parchment. He almost asked her if she was actually working on homework at this hour, but he decided not to risk offending her again.

"You could just tell everyone it's delayed a day," she said.

"I suppose I could. But people are anxious to hear, especially the people who tried out," he said.

"Well, I won't disturb you any more then."

James knew better than to tell her that her very presence distracted him. Instead, he watched her open her book and set the pieces of parchment to one side of it. It seemed she really was doing homework at two in the morning.

James shook his head and went back to staring at the pages in front of him. He really wasn't sure why he was looking at them still. He didn't need to look at his notes to know Emma had performed best.

He pushed the papers to the side with a grunt and twirled his quill in his fingers absently.

She would be the youngest Quidditch player at Hogwarts in years, decades actually. After the trials he had asked Dumbledore if Emma was too young to play. He had half hoped the headmaster would make the decision for him. Instead, he had just smiled and told James those decisions were left to his discretion. Apparently, James had some sort of leadership position now, and was thus accorded both freedom and responsibility.

_Great help that is_, he thought to himself as he continued to ponder his dilemma.

If Emma was the best, then really he ought to let her play. It was the only fair thing to do. But the very thought made him anxious, and the image of her getting knocked off her broom replayed itself in his head. There was simply no way he could do that to little girl. He couldn't, even if it was unfair. But James had always prided himself on being a fair, if tough, captain.

He groaned. This was a sodding mess.

"Is it really so bad, Potter?"

Lily had shut her book and was looking at him with a small smile playing on her lips.

"Just part of it is."

"Which part?"

"Well…truthfully Evans, I've been making it a policy not to discuss this sort of thing with anyone."

"That's probably a good idea, quite professional of you actually," she said.

"I have my moments."

This earned him a smile from Lily.

"It's too bad though," she said. "I'm awfully curious to see how you put the team together."

James felt his resolve weakening. She was curious. Curious about something _he_ was doing. And it would be nice to hear what she had to say. Lily seemed to make good decisions.

"I might be able to make an exception."

"Really?"

Lily tucked her knees under her and nodded for him to continue.

"I'm going to be posting the team in a few hours, so just don't run around waking people up to tell them what I've said, yeah?"

"I won't, I promise."

"Right, so, I've got the team mostly put together. The only problem is that little first-year girl, Emma Robbins."

"What's the problem? She seemed brilliant!"

"She was, but I don't know if I should actually put her on the team. I'm not sure if she can really handle these kinds of matches. I mean she's tiny, and young, and..."

"And a girl?"

Lily's eyes were flashing dangerously and James snorted in disbelief.

"You don't honestly think it's because she's a girl? There were three girls on Gryffindoor's team last year. And I'll remind you that_ I_ picked that team!"

"So, it's because she's young and small?"

"Yes, _not_ because she's a girl. Quidditch games are rough, I'm worried she's going to get hurt."

"You mean like getting hit with a bludger and nearly having her nose broken, because that already happened."

"Or falling off her bloody broom and crashing to her death!"

"Which also nearly happened, but you saved her."

"And that somehow makes it okay? What if I'm on the other side of the pitch next time she gets knocked off her broom? Or hell, what if I just don't see it happen, or can't get there quickly enough, or just somehow drop her?"

Lily looked at him for a moment and her eyes softened, though James couldn't quite decipher what her expression meant. She lowered her voice when she spoke again.

"If you hadn't gotten to her, one of the professors could have slowed her fall. There are charms for that, even if they are difficult," she said. "There's always accidents that can happen in Quidditch, why is it different with her?"

"Because…"

James trailed off and tried to gather his thoughts. He wasn't entirely sure why he worried about Emma so much more than other players. It wasn't just her size. Seekers were usually small. And her age didn't bother him, since her talent more than made up for it.

Lily was looking at him with her eyebrows raised, awaiting his response.

"It can't be because she's a girl. That's never bothered me before. It's not that."

"It sure seems like it might be that."

"It's Durmstrang! I've played with guys from there before and they're brutal. They're usually big, they like to knock their opponents around, and they can whack the hell out of a bludger. They'll just tear her apart."

"Because she's a small girl?"

"Yes!"

"What if she were a boy, a scrawny twelve-year-old boy?"

James sighed. He knew his answer, and he wasn't sure Lily would like it.

"I'd say to hell with it. He signed up to play Quidditch and so that's what he's going to do."

Her eyes flashed and James could tell he'd gotten her angry again. But really, why the bloody hell did she have to be like this? Was he really so awful for not wanting to let little girls get knocked around?

"So if it were a boy in the exact same position, you'd let him play," she snapped. "But because she's a girl, suddenly it's a dilemma?"

"Yes! At the very least she is going to get the living hell beaten out of her, and there is a decent chance she'll get seriously injured! So what kind of irresponsible, callous, un-gentlemanly git would I be if I knowingly put a twelve-year-old girl in that position?"

He expected Lily to yell at him. He'd completely lost his temper and raised his voice. Besides, it didn't usually take much to get Lily yelling at him. But instead, she just looked thoughtful.

"I don't think you would be irresponsible or ungentlemanly, or anything like that," she said eventually. "I think you would be fair. You would be acknowledging that Emma has a right to decide for herself if she wants to play a sport where she might get hurt. And it seems to me that she's already decided that. She's been knocked around by bludgers, knocked off her broom, and nearly had her nose broken, but she still wants to play. So, is it really fair of you to tell her she can't? Especially if you'd tell a boy in her place that he could?"

James felt his stomach starting to sink, because what Lily had said sounded right. Emma ought to be on the team, even if it meant he'd be entirely unable to sleep before Durmstrang matches.

"I reckon you're right," he said at last. "I really didn't think it had anything to do with her being a girl, though it seems it did."

Lily gave him a small smile and James couldn't help but feel a bit more cheerful. At least she didn't seem cross with him anymore. In fact, she seemed slightly amused when she spoke again.

"If it helps, I think it was the fact that she was tiny, and young, _and_ a girl that did you in. I think it was just too much for your previously unknown chivalrous side."

"Previously unknown? Surely you're not implying my chivalry surprises you?"

She grinned.

"That's precisely what I'm implying."

"I am plenty chivalrous!"

"Name an instance when you've been chivalrous."

James searched his brain. All that came up were dozens of instances when he had attempted to be chivalrous with Lily, only to infuriate her.

"I've tried, but it's never gone as well as I'd hoped," he gave Lily a pointed look. "Usually the girl in question hexes me."

"Like when you insisted on carrying all my books to class and I had to hex your arms to your sides?"

"Exactly! How was that not chivalrous?"

"It's not chivalry if the girl says she can manage just fine and you proceed to ignore her and levitate her books into your arms!"

"What if it's a heavy plant and she's about to break her arms carrying it to your work station."

Lily giggled.

"Then it probably is chivalry and the girl in question is just being stubborn. But, since she had admitted this earlier and apologized, it's most ungentlemanly for you to bring it up again."

"I'm terribly sorry. I hope the lady will be so kind as to forgive my lapse."

"Seeing as it's late and you seem quite tired, I suppose I will," she smiled.

"Speaking of late, why the hell are you doing homework right now?"

"Truthfully?"

"No, I wanted you to make up a spectacular story."

Lily smiled at him.

"Well," she let out a small sigh. "I think the real reason is that I'm practically compulsive about getting good marks. But, the reason I give myself to avoid admitting I'm compulsive is that Alice kept us up late discussing the trials. So, I still need to finish the last question from the Transfiguration homework, even if it is two in the morning."

"Of course, makes perfect sense," James smiled at her. "I mean you couldn't possibly leave one question blank."

"And risk getting an A on one assignment? Never!"

She giggled again and James felt his mood improving. Suddenly staying up late in the common room didn't seem so miserable. In fact, he was feeling wide awake and quite content. He glanced back over at Lily, who had tucked a wavy strand of hair behind her ear and surveyed her stack of parchment again.

"I may just call it a night though," she said. "I can't seem to figure out this last question."

"Which one is that?"

Lily got up from her chair and came over to his table with book and parchment in hand. She passed the homework questions to him and James skimmed down to the end of the page. _Does a witch or wizard's animagus form indicate anything about his or her personality or physical characteristics? Explain your position._

"Well of course it does," James said. He could just picture Sirius bouncing around like an overexcited puppy at the thought of new prank, or Peter squeaking when he was nervous.

"Of course? Where on earth does the book explain that?"

This gave James a moment of pause. The book had not been quite so explicit. James had made the argument because it fit his personal experience, then he had dug around the book to find passages to support his opinion. But he wasn't about to explain that to Lily, so he asked to see the book and tried to find the passages he had drawn on.

"It's mostly in the case studies," he said. He tore some parchment into a few pieces and stuck them in the book to mark the appropriate passages as he spoke. "The case studies talk about the personalities and appearances of the anamgi, and I think McGonagall is hoping you'll use that information to make an argument. You could really argue it either way, I suppose. I just think the case studies offer more evidence to support the idea that the animal form says something about the anamgi."

He handed Lily's book back to her with the pieces of parchment sticking out at all angles. She brushed his hand as she took it back, looking at him with an odd mix of skepticism and admiration.

"Thank you. I have to admit, I'm a bit impressed."

"Well, I like Transfiguration."

"It's not that so much. I knew you were good at it," she said. "I'm impressed you actually bothered to do all the reading, including the case studies."

He shrugged.

"Like I said, I enjoy it."

"Well, thanks," she gave him a small smile, then covered a yawn with her hand. "Well, I suppose we'll both get to bed a bit sooner."

James rather wished she hadn't used the words "we" and "bed" in a sentence together. It made him wish they'd both get into the _same_ bed 'a bit sooner', or ever really. But aloud he just said,

"I suppose."

After a moment of collecting himself, he added,

"I do still have to write the flyers. That'll take forever since my handwriting is a right disaster."

"I'll do it for you."

James felt his mouth drop open.

"Oh-er-I mean, I guess I shouldn't," Lily tucked her hair behind her ears again. "I mean, well, since I shouldn't know who's on the team before everyone else and-

"No, no. It's not that. Everyone else will find out in a few hours anyway," he said. "I just don't want to keep you up. It'll take forever."

"To write one flyer?"

"Well, we have to have at least four for the great hall, then we need-

"So? I'll duplicate them."

"Oh."

James felt like a moron. He had never bothered to learn a spell for duplicating things, although it made perfect sense that there was one. He could see the smile forming on Lily's lips again.

"Do you mean to say that you actually wrote each of those flyers individually, Potter?"

"Well-er-Peter did actually, but-

She burst out laughing and James decided not to bother coming up with an excuse for his stupidity. Collective stupidity really. Sirius, Pete, and Remus were just as guilty.

"Honestly. Come on Potter, dictate the names to me."

She grabbed a piece of parchment and her quill, then sat down on the edge of the table. Her bathrobe rode up her thighs a bit and James stared at the creamy skin and the line her legs made as she crossed them. He looked away quickly and prayed she hadn't noticed.

"Had you not finished picking the players?" she asked, mistaking the reason for his rather vacant look.

"No-er-uhm…"

She frowned at him for a moment, then said,

"Ohhh, is this about Alice?"

"Er-yeah," James stuttered, seizing on the explanation she provided.

"I realize she's not going to make the team. Even she knew that Longbottom was better."

Having finally managed to get his mind off Lily's thighs, James began to put together what she was saying.

"No, I mean yes, yes Longbottom is better. He's going to be the Keeper. But I'd be mad not to have a reserve Keeper, so Alice made the team as a reserve player."

"Oh, she'll be so excited!"

Lily was absolutely grinning and James grinned back, though partially out of relief at not having been caught looking up her robe.

"Well come on Potter, what are the names then?"

James dictated the names, sometimes spelling them as well for Lily. When he was finished she held up the flyer for his inspection.

**_Hogwarts Quidditch Team_**

**_Chasers_**

_James Potter (Gryffindor)_

_Jenny Wong (Gryffindor)_

_Annalise Foster (Hufflepuff)_

**_Beaters_**

_Greg Harper (Hufflepuff)_

_Edward Burke (Syltherin) _

**_Keeper_**

_Frank Longbottom (Ravenclaw)_

**_Seeker_**

_Emma Robbins (Gryffindor)_

**_Reserve Players_**

_Alice Manning (Gryffindor)_

_Norman Flint (Syltherin)_

_Mingmei Chin (Ravenclaw)_

_First practice is Friday at 3:30 PM_

James read over the flyer several times then said,

"Perfect."

"Geminio," Lily swished her wand and another copy of the flyer appeared. "Now you try it, Potter."

"Geminio."

Nothing happened and they both started to laugh. James had never quite had the same knack for Charms that he did for Transfiguration.

"It's a lighter motion," Lily said. "Don't jab so much. Gently swish."

Keeping that in mind, James attempted the spell again. To his relief, a third flyer appeared and he and Lily continued duplicating them until they had eight.

"Right then, I'll post these first thing tomorrow. Don't say anything until then," he said.

"You're not going to sleep through breakfast? I certainly am."

"I can't keep the masses waiting."

"Honestly, Potter. Well, good luck getting through lessons then."

She shook her head at him, but she was smiling as she did so. James couldn't bring himself to feel the least bit concerned about being tired during lessons. He wasn't sure if he'd ever made Lily Evans smile this much in his entire Hogwarts career, let alone in one conversation. To hell with sleep, he'd do this every night for the rest of his bloody life.

"I'll be fine," he assured her. "Thanks again for your help."

"Your welcome, thanks for the Transfiguration help."

"Any time."

"Well, good night then, Potter."

"Night Evans."

James retreated up the stairs to the boys' dormitory and let out a heavy sigh. He shut the door behind him and started kicking off his shoes and socks. Why did Lily Evans have to be so wonderful?


	11. Chapter 11

_I'm so sorry that I took so long to update this time around. Life got in the way. I do have two more chapters almost finished, so it shouldn't be another six week wait. _

* * *

><p>There was a flurry of activity around Hogwarts after James announced the Quidditch team lineup. There was a fair bit of grumbling from those who did not make the team, though that came as no surprise to Lily. James seemed completely unperturbed by it and offered no apologies about his choices.<p>

"The team's final, Yaxley, there's no point in discussing it," she heard him tell the Seeker of last year's Slytherin team.

From what Lily observed, James was forced to repeat that line almost incessantly for some time after the team was posted. Lily wasn't sure if the arguments eventually died down because people realized James wasn't going to budge, or because Sirius Black had taken to enlarging the lips or tongues of anyone who argued with James.

The only person who received more attention than James was Emma Robbins. She had already been something of a celebrity after the trials, but once the team was posted the whole school knew who the first-year Gryffindoor was. The fact that she was Muggle-born had caused even more commotion. People were surprised she could play Quidditch so well. Lily overheard her repeatedly explaining that her uncle was a wizard and had started teaching her to fly the moment she got her Hogwarts letter. Most students accepted that she was naturally brilliant at Quidditch and were glad to have her on the team, but a vocal group concerned about blood purity seemed to disagree.

For most of her Hogwarts career, Lily had forced herself to ignore the grumbling about Muggle-borns. It generally took the form of snide insinuations or subtle exclusion, and Lily was not one to lower herself to responding to such pettiness.

If she were being entirely honest with herself, she would also have admitted that she used to avoid potential confrontations for Severus' sake. Lily had thought their friendship was strained enough without arguments over whether one of his housemates had slighted her enough to warrant a reaction. At the time it seemed better to avoid a confrontation.

Perhaps it was because her friendship with Severus had ended the way it had, or perhaps it was because of the Muggle-born kidnappings and killings that had occurred recently, but Lily was finding it more and more difficult to ignore the prejudice. One afternoon, she found herself practically itching to whip out her wand and hex a group of Slytherins who said they "just weren't sure a Muggle-born first-year could really understand Quidditch well enough to be on the team."

But she was a prefect. She ought to behave responsibly instead of acting like a female version of Sirius Black. Besides, Lily knew that a brilliant performance by Emma was the only thing that would really shut down the criticism. So, she resolved to keep her head high and ignore any petty remarks she heard.

Lily was doing reasonably well with this strategy until she found Regulus Black and two members of last year's Slytherin team talking to Emma Robbins near the potions classroom.

It was plain enough that Emma was on the defensive. She was backing up towards a stone wall as the three boys surrounded her. Her eyes darted around the corridor frantically and her hand was making its way towards her pocket.

"Trying to run away?"

Lily couldn't tell which boy said it, but they were all laughing as Emma had literally backed up against the wall.

"Potter was mad picking a scared, little Mudblood to play Seeker."

Lily was fairly sure that was Regulus Black. He might be the only person who hated James Potter as much as Severus. Lily supposed it was because Sirius seemed to be more of a brother to James than he had ever been to Regulus. But that, Lily thought, was hardly an excuse for picking on a first year.

"Is there a problem here?" she asked.

"Look the Mudbloods are banding together."

The comment came from a seventh year with brown hair and light blue eyes. Lily was fairly sure he had been a Chaser for Slytherin last year, but hadn't made the Hogwarts team. Lily suspected that, as much as blood purity, was the reason for bullying Emma.

"Continue with that and I'll have to report you to Professor Slughorn," Lily snapped. "Emma, why don't you get going to your next class."

Emma moved to leave, but the boys refused to step out of her way. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, class is going to start in ten minutes. I don't know what you think you're going to do between now and-

Lily saw the former Chaser draw his wand. Before she could draw her own, she saw a flash of light and felt a strange pressure beneath the skin of her face. Then she felt the rather sickening feeling of boils coming to the surface of her skin.

The boys all started laughing and Lily forced herself not to run for the nearest bathroom. She was sure she looked absolutely hideous, but she wasn't about to leave Emma.

"Ugly blood, and now an ugly face to match," one of the boys said. "That ought to-

But Lily didn't hear what ought to happen because the boy let out a strangled cry as hair sprouted from his nostrils and began growing rapidly toward his chin. The Chaser who had cursed Lily turned to look down the hall, but his wand sprung out of his hand and was caught by Sirius Black.

"_Fernunculus_," Black said, giving his own wand a lazy flourish. "Boils aren't so fun on your own face are they, Mulligan?"

Before the boy could reply Sirius stunned him and other boy Lily didn't know. Then Sirius turned and looked disdainfully at his brother.

"This your idea of fun? Tagging along with a bunch of gits to attack two girls, one of whom is only a first year. Pathetic."

"So the blood traitor is going to lecture me on dignity?"

For a brief moment Lily thought she saw an emotion other than disgust cross Sirius' face, but it was gone before she could place it.

"You really believe that rubbish about blood purity? That far gone already are you?"

"Rubbish? What's rubbish is that filth like them are allowed to hold wands and-

"_Silencio_!"

Regulus mouthed words for a moment. Then he pointed his wand at his brother, attempting nonverbal spells that he had not yet been taught.

"Get out of here," Sirius told Emma and Lily. Emma didn't need telling twice, she took off down the hall.

"Go on Evans, get-

"Sirius!"

Her warning came too late. Regulus had tackled his brother and the two rolled to the ground in a tangle of punches and kicks. Lily tried to pull them apart, grabbing Regulus' shoulder, but he threw an elbow hard into her stomach and she fell backwards.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?"

Slughorn waddled down the hallway and blasted the two boys apart.

"Fighting in the middle of the corridor-

"Please professor!" Lily cried. "Black-er-Sirius was only trying to help me and Emma Robbins."

"Miss Evans?" Slughorn peered at her for a moment. "What happened to you?"

"I was hexed by that boy-er the unconscious one-and then Sirius came, but before that they were attacking Emma and-

"Slow down, Miss Evans. I'm afraid this will have to be settled in my office," Slughorn said, as he surveyed the scene in front of him.

He revived the unconscious Slytherin and rid the other of his newly acquired hair. He then herded Sirius, Lily, Regulus, and the two other Slytherins toward his office. Once inside, he restored Regulus' ability to speak and everyone began to talk at once.

"Enough! Miss Evans, why don't you tell me what happened?"

Lily ignored the glares coming her way and recounted what had happened. She wasn't surprised when Slughorn took her at her word. She had always been one of his favorites and no one attempted to argue with her version of the events. Instead, they stared sullenly at the ground as Slughorn surveyed them, shaking his head.

"Well," he said finally. "It appears you have done nothing wrong, Miss Evans. You'd probably best get to the hospital wing and get those boils seen to."

Lily did as she was told, but found that Madame Pomfrey was not as helpful as she would have hoped. The nurse informed Lily that it would take a few days for her boils to disappear, and in the mean time all she could do was keep applying a cream.

Lily hardly wanted to walk around with her face covered in angry, pus-filled boils, but Madame Pomfrey saw no "medical concerns." She shooed Lily out of the hospital wing and Lily began the miserable trek to Gryffindoor tower.

Though she tried to take the corridors most likely to be empty, Lily still ran into plenty of other students. Some winced at the sight of her face and others averted their eyes. She even had the misfortune of running into Christine Waters and a few seventh years, who sniggered loudly as she went by.

Lily barely made it to Gryffindoor Tower without bursting into tears. She had decided her day could not possibly get any worse when she ran straight into James Potter.


	12. Chapter 12

James was not having a particularly good day.

He had visited Julia the night before and didn't make it back to his dormitory until two in the morning. James wasn't about to complain about an evening of snogging, but his lack of sleep was starting to catch up to him.

His irritability left him even less likely than normal to ignore the racist comments he'd been hearing since the Quidditch team was formed. Most of the school didn't care that the team included two muggle-born and two half-blood students; however, there was a vocal minority that seemed to think it necessary to speculate about whether or not muggle-borns could really play Quidditch well enough to be on a school-wide team. Since the Potter family's stance on equal rights for all witches and wizards was well-known, some students had even suggested that James picked muggle-borns and half-bloods to make a political statement.

James had only gotten second-hand reports of that particular rumor until a second-year Slytherin had "whispered" about it as James passed by. The resulting confrontation landed the second-year in the hospital wing and James in McGonagall's office.

"A second year, Potter? Really?" she snapped.

James looked at the floor and didn't reply. He wasn't particularly proud of it. He stared at the stones around his shoes and tried to gather his thoughts, but found his mind seemed to be working rather slowly.

"Well? What happened?"

James didn't want to meet McGonagall's eyes, so he focused on the wall behind her head.

"He said I put a bunch of Mudbloods on the team because of my family's politics and that none of them could really play worth a damn. I asked him if he cared to repeat that, and he said my Quidditch team was a family political project…"

James paused. Surely she knew what he had done next. But the silence lingered and James knew she wanted to hear it from him. He sighed.

"Then I-er-well, I said I would show him my idea of a political project and I gave him and a pig snout, a tail, and knocked him into a wall."

James winced. He had definitely been a bit excessive. McGonagall said nothing and just glared at him with her lips pressed into a thin line.

"I was just really sick of this blood purity talk and so I just…I dunno, I snapped, I guess."

"That is hardly a sufficient excuse."

"I know."

"Do you, Potter?"

James looked at her, startled. Of course he knew he had been wrong, that he shouldn't have lost his temper like that with such a young student.

"Potter, we have given you a position of authority. We did that not just because you are an excellent Quidditch player, but because you displayed leadership in your position as captain last year. Gryffindoor's team was unified, hard-working, and displayed sportsmanship on the pitch. The headmaster had hoped you could bring those qualities to a school-wide team-

"Who says I won't-

"Let me finish Potter! The headmaster hadalso hoped you would provide leadership _off _the pitch as well. He had hoped that providing you with this authority would encourage you to put your apparent popularity to some good use and act responsibly. I must confess, I had also hoped you might decide to behave responsibly-

"How? By letting a bunch of racists insult my teammates? Is that responsible then?"

"Of course not, Potter!"

The look she gave him made James wish he had had the good sense not to interrupt her. She was glaring so fiercely that it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He dropped her gaze and went back to looking at the floor. When it was clear he wasn't going to say anything else, McGonagall gave a small sniff and said dryly,

"Speaking to a professor may not have been as entertaining as jinxing a second-year, but it would have been more effective. Or do you think our staff is willing to tolerate racism, leaving it up to you to punish it?"

That knocked the last bit of defiance right out of James. He slumped his shoulders and shook his head. McGonagall, however, just looked at him as though still waiting for an answer.

"You wouldn't tolerate it," he said. "I didn't need to jinx anybody."

"Then you will not be surprised that I have given you detention with Mr. Filch all day on Saturday. You will be in his office by eight in the morning."

James nodded.

"I expect this behavior to stop," she looked at him and James nodded again. "You may go."

The day hadn't improved much from there. James was still behind on his lessons and he had worked through the remainder of lunch to finish his Transfiguration homework. He then decided to skip Potions to work on Arithmancy problems. He figured Slughorn was more apt to forgive him than Professor Vector.

James had expected Sirius and Remus would cheer him up once he got to Arithmancy (Peter hadn't gotten enough OWLs to continue with it), but only Remus arrived. He informed James that Sirius had left lunch early to chat up Samantha Prickett, but never turned up at Potions. Slughorn himself had also been twenty minutes late to the lesson.

"He was so distracted I doubt he'll even remember you weren't there," Remus said as they took their seats. "Oh, and Lily wasn't there either."

That bothered James, though he couldn't quite say why. It was true that Lily rarely missed a lesson, but she certainly could have been ill. However, after lessons it became apparent that both Sirius and Lily were missing. James had gone to his trunk to get the Marauder's Map, only to remember that Sirius had taken it earlier that day. Now completely at a loss, James found himself growing more and more irritable as dinner and came and went without either of them. He was about as cheerful as the Bloody Baron by the time Sirius stormed into the dormitory and threw his things onto the floor.

Normally when Sirius said he had fought with his brother, James tried to cheer him up or at least take his mind off it. Instead, he just paced around the dormitory while Sirius recounted the afternoon's events.

"So, they were bullying Lily and Emma about blood purity? Why them?" Remus asked.

"Initially it was just Emma, I think. From what I heard, Evans way trying to make them stop. She was threatening to tell a professor about it, like they'd give two shits about that."

"Why were they bothering Emma?" James asked.

"Not sure exactly, but I thought they said something about the Quidditch team."

James swore and kicked his trunk on the floor. It seemed he hadn't done Emma any favors by putting her on the team. Instead, he had succeeded in ensuring she was in danger both on and off the pitch. Never mind the fact that Lily Evans was jinxed over it too. Why the bloody hell did she have to be involved? And why had he picked that day to skip potions? It was the one day he really ought to have been down in the dungeons.

The dormitory seemed too small as James paced around it. He wanted to go hex a bunch of Slytherins, but Sirius had already done that. The conversation with McGonagall was also still prominent enough in his mind to keep James from charging towards the Slytherin common room.

"I'm going flying," he said, finally hitting on the only thing that sounded remotely palatable.

"It's dark," Peter said.

"So the fuck what?"

Peter flinched. Remus stood up and walked towards the door.

"I might as well do rounds, there's no more point in waiting for Lily, I suppose."

As he reached the door, he turned to James and added,

"You might not want to get into any more trouble today."

James didn't have a chance to reply before Remus shut the door. He looked back around the dormitory. Peter had gotten out his Transfiguration textbook and Sirius was staring at the wall. James scowled. He didn't have the energy to build Peter back up after snapping at him or to deal with a sullen Sirius. And he couldn't stand being in that room for a second longer.

He put on his shoes, grabbed his broom, and stomped down to the common room. He was sick of Remus always telling him what he ought to do. Sick of Sirius's family. Sick of racist Slytherins. Sick of Peter needing constant reassurance. Sick of McGonagall expecting responsibility from him. Sick of everything really.

He barely noticed he had crossed through the common room until he opened the portrait hole and crashed right into Lily Evans.

At first all he saw was a flash of red hair, but then she looked up and he saw her face. Her boils were so red and inflamed they even looked painful. James felt like the air had been sucked out of him and all he could see was Lily's injured face.

"Bloody hell, Evans! Next time someone is bothering Emma, you come get me, you understand? And go see Madame Pomfrey, you look terrible."

At first James, didn't quite realize what he had said. The words just tumbled out in a rush and he was still processing them when he heard a groan. Remus, who James didn't notice until that moment, was shaking his head at him in disbelief.

"Are you mad, Potter?" Lily yelled. "I try to help out your teammate and this is how you thank me?"

"I don't want you to help, I want you to come get me and-

"Oh yes, come get James to save me because I couldn't possibly take care of myself! For your information, Potter, I am perfectly capable of sorting my own problems."

"Your face says otherwise."

James wanted to take that comment back almost immediately. But Lily spoke again before he could gather his thoughts.

"Thank you Potter. I had no idea my face was covered in hideous boils. I certainly feel much better about it all now that you have pointed out just how ugly I look-

"I didn't say you-

"_Shut_ _up_! I think you've said quite enough already! But for your information, a few boils never killed anybody. I am not going to sit back and let those bigoted pricks torment a first year! I don't care if I walk away with a few boils! I am not going to go crying to you-or anyone else! Now, get the hell back in the common room because it's after curfew and I_ will_ give you a detention!"

"Listen, Evans-

"INSIDE NOW POTTER!"

Lily had drawn her wand and pressed it against his chest. Startled though he was, James was still going to try and explain himself, when Remus spoke.

"James, do us all a favor and go inside."

His friend was looking at him with such disgust that James felt like he'd been punched in the stomach.

"You've done enough damage for one day."

Miserably, James realized that Remus was right. He had basically ruined an entire day and he doubted he was going to be able to fix it now. He turned around and slammed the portrait door behind him.


	13. Chapter 13

Lily simply did not want to wake up the next day. As her alarm sounded, she kept her eyes squeezed shut, willing it to go away, before Marlene threw a pillow at her bed and told her to "turn the bloody thing off." Marlene usually got up fifteen minutes before breakfast, brushed her teeth in the shower, and stumbled into the Great Hall with her hair dripping wet and not a speck of makeup on her tan skin. Since she put so little effort into getting ready, she was able to sleep much later than Alice and Lily, and nothing bothered her more than being woken up early by their alarm clocks.

Lily realized she could no longer fight the inevitable and she turned her alarm clock off and made her way to the bathroom to survey the damage on her face. It was a bit better, but still ghastly. Her face was covered in red, angry looking lumps, though they were a bit smaller than they had been the previous night.

She covered her face in Madame Pomfrey's cream and then got ready for breakfast. Alice tried to help her cover the boils in makeup, but found it did little good. So Lily left for breakfast finally accepting that she was going to look awful.

Accepting her fate, Lily found, didn't make it any more pleasant. She still felt her face heating up as people looked at her in shock or disgust before dropping their gazes. A few people nudged their friends to look, but most people purposely avoided looking at her face.

At breakfast she was slightly heartened by the reaction of her fellow Gryffindoors. Some told her that the boils didn't look so bad, although they could never seem to look her in the eye as they said it. Others promised to teach the Slytherins a lesson at the first available opportunity.

Lily thought the situation had already escalated far too much. Several Slytherins had been stunned and Regulus and Sirius had gotten into a fistfight. So she attempted to defuse the situation by assuring her would-be avengers that Slughorn would punish the Slytherins appropriately. However this didn't seem sufficient for most and Lily left for Herbology wondering if she had inadvertently started some sort of house war.

Remus and Peter Pettigrew approached her when she was halfway across the grounds and had just given up on convincing some fourth years not to drop dungbombs in the Slytherin common room.

"I told you no one wants to see you getting hexed," Remus said, repeating what he said to her during rounds the previous night.

Lily groaned.

"I really think this is getting out of hand."

"At least you know everyone likes you," Peter said.

"Or everyone wants an excuse to start a fight with Slytherins," she said.

"Probably a bit of both," Remus said with a shrug. They quickened their pace to catch up with Alice and Marlene, who were waiting outside the greenhouses for them. As they approached, Marlene held the door and said,

"Where's the other half of your band?"

"I don't know," Remus shrugged again. "If I had to hazard a guess, I would say the Quidditch pitch. They were gone when Peter and I woke up, and it's not as though they went to the library to get an early start on studying."

Lily looked up at the clock and wasn't sure if she was irritated or relieved. Potter was going to be late, and if he was on the Quidditch pitch there was a good chance he would skiv off altogether. On the one hand, she wanted Potter in class because Professor Greene had said they would be pruning their snapping tulips, a labour-intensive task.

On the other hand, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to see James after their argument the night before. Remus had spent quite a bit of time during rounds assuring her that Potter didn't mean what he said and was just having a rough day, but that didn't take the sting out of his words. Because of them, her boils were not just ugly, they were evidence that he thought she couldn't take care of herself. And once again, Lily found herself wondering why she gave a damn what James Potter thought. She supposed it was because if James thought she was helpless, than others probably did too.

"Alright, Lily?"

Alice nudged her and Lily forced herself to stop frowning.

"Fine, just thinking that I'll probably have to prune my snapping tulip on my own while Potter indulges his bad mood."

Professor Greene called the class to order and began explaining how to prune the snapping tulips. Lily thought it sounded like a miserable process. The various stems of the plant would move and thrash after you cut the first stray tendril, making it difficult to cut the rest of them. If the tulip had managed to grow a few blossoms (which James and Lily's had) the blossoms would start snapping, attempting to bite whoever was cutting the plant.

Lily began wishing James would show up, even if she was angry with him. This certainly seemed like a two person activity. But when Professor Greene finished speaking, Potter was nowhere to be found.

Alice and Marlene looked sympathetically at her. They helped her carry her plant to her work station and promised to help her when they were done.

Lily just sighed and surveyed her plant. There was no point in dwelling, she might as well get it over with. She cut the first stray tendril and the plant immediately began to thrash at her. She jumped back, barely managing to remove her arm from the range of one of the snapping blossoms. The plant's tendrils swept the quill and inkpot she had left on her table to the floor and continued to twist angrily about the table.

Lily felt her stomach sinking. This was going to be a nightmare.

"Fuck," she muttered.

"Language Evans."

Lily jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She recognized it instantly. Potter's face was inches from her own, looking over her shoulder at their plant.

"It looks vicious," he said. "Good thing you have a partner."

"Oh yes, that's just grand. I'm so glad you've decided to miss the lecture explaining how this ought to be done and swoop in here to save me."

James' left her side and slammed his books down beneath the table. Lily refused to look at him. She could practically feel the frustration radiating from his body, but she didn't care. She didn't owe him any sort of courtesy at the moment.

"I apologize for being late," he said tightly. "Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it."

She paused for a moment, trying to process words that sounded so out of characteristic for James Potter.

"Well, we have to prune it. So, someone needs to cut and someone needs to keep the rest of the plant from attacking whoever is pruning."

"Right, then I'll go ahead and-er, which job would you like me to do?"

Lily felt a smile threaten to break loose on her face. It was amusing to listen to him struggle against his instinct to be in charge.

"Hold off the plant while I prune," she decided.

He stood to her side and nodded. It took him a few minutes to gather the plant's tendrils into his hands. They would twist out of his grasp, or he would be startled into letting them go when one of the blossoms snapped at his hand. Finally, he developed a system where he grabbed the plant just beneath the blossoms with one hand, and kept the other hand free to grab at the escaped tendrils that went for Lily.

She worked quickly and almost forgot Potter was there. It took all her concentration to keep track of the tendrils she needed to cut, they liked to flail wildly away just as she got close with the shears. It wasn't until she was practically dizzy that she finally said,

"I'm going to take a break. I'm going cross-eyed trying to keep track of them all."

"Fair enough. I'm getting some water, want some?"

"Yes, thanks."

Lily stepped back from the plant, which nearly exploded out of James' grasp. She was beginning to think Professor Greene had a sadistic streak. This was absolutely miserable work. She scooted her chair back from the table, sank into it, and closed her eyes.

She had been resting for a few minutes when the sound of a chair scooting beside her signaled James' return. She opened her eyes and took the cup he offered, and then noticed the bite marks on his hands.

"Oh," she said, her eyes resting on one that was bleeding sluggishly. "Are you alright? Did that hurt?"

"Nah, not much," he shrugged. She noticed him fiddling absently with his fingers for a moment before he cleared his throat. "Listen, uhm, I'm sorry about what I said last night."

There was a long pause. James was perhaps hoping that was all he would have to say, but Lily thought a bit of an explanation was in order. He seemed to realize this and sighed. He scooted his chair around to face her and Lily looked up at him.

His eyes were bloodshot behind his glasses and his hair was more disheveled than usual. He was also sporting a large, purple bruise on his cheekbone.

"What on earth is that Potter?"

"What?"

"On your cheekbone?"

"Oh this?"

He touched his bloody hand to the bruise and Lily gaped at him. He really was a mess.

"Sirius got me with a bludger."

"They don't always bruise like that, do they?"

"Not usually. I reckon Sirius might have been working off a bit of steam."

Lily frowned. She didn't think beating up your friend was a particularly nice way to take out anger.

"Where is he?"

"Dunno. He didn't feel like coming to class. I was trying to talk him around. He's in enough trouble as it is and I feel bad for Dorcas doing this on her own. Didn't work though."

"Oh."

Lily turned this information over in her mind.

"I ought to apologize to him, it seems like I've caused him a lot of trouble."

"You apologize?" James snorted. "Regulus is the one that ought to apologize. Regulus and the rest of his mad family. And Mulligan and those other stupid Slytherins. And their idiot parents who teach them this blood purity nonsense. And…well, a lot of people ought to apologize, but you're not one of them. Which sort of brings me to what I was trying to say in the first place."

He looked down and cracked two of his knuckles. Lily winced.

"Sorry," he looked back up again. "My mum says I'm terrible at apologies. That I tend to ramble and-anyway, she's clearly right."

He took another breath.

"I shouldn't have said you looked terrible, I shouldn't have said you ought to come get me every time someone bothers Emma, and I really shouldn't have said that one bit about your face. I reckon I just shouldn't have opened my mouth at all last night."

He paused again and Lily sighed.

"James, do you even understand why you upset me so much?"

"Yeah, I can think of about a dozen different reasons. Implying your face looked bad, for starters. Then-

"No, but the really important reason."

He sighed.

"Is it that I implied that you shouldn't, or couldn't, stand up to those Slytherins?"

Lily nodded and his shoulders slumped.

"That's not what I meant. Or at least not now that I think about it. You shouldn't just run away from a fight like that. The blood purity stuff is bigoted, offensive, stupid, and…and I think it's getting dangerous. Which is why I don't want to see you, or Emma, or anyone else I know mixed up in it."

"But-

"Hang on, let me finish. I know you are mixed up in it. People are attacking you for who you are, so how could you not be? So, it was completely stupid of me to tell you to stay out of it. First off, I can't really tell you what to do. And even if I could, I ought to be telling you to stand up to them. It's what we all need to be doing."

He looked up and met her eyes. There was a sincerity in his face that moved her. Not even the tiniest part of him that believed his blood was purer than hers. In fact, he was actually disgusted by the notion. And that left Lily feeling relieved. No matter how frustrating he was, James Potter was still very much on her side, which was more comforting that she would have guessed.

"Thank you," she said.

"I'm sorry for everything else I said too."

He was looking apprehensively at her face. Lily expected him to look away quickly, like everyone else had. Instead, he studied her. His eyes moved across her face, and met her own again. His hand moved, and for a moment she thought he was going to touch her face, but instead he ran it absently through his hair.

"I can't believe I actually said anything about the boils," he said. "That was just…I mean they _are _bad, no point in lying, but-

Lily groaned. Was he really going to mess it all up again?

"Potter-

"Wait! I'm not going to treat you like you're an idiot! You know you have boils, and you know they're bad. But they're going to go away. And, what I'm trying to say is that you have boils, but you don't look terrible. You just look like you got hexed is all. Pretty girls get hexed, it doesn't mean they aren't pretty anymore."

Lily could feel her face heating up and she looked away.

"They almost hide your blushing too," he said with a grin. She elbowed him in the side and rolled her eyes.

"Enough Potter. Let's just get back to the plant."


	14. Chapter 14

_Sorry for making you wait so long for an update. It's been a busy summer. On the plus side, this chapter is pretty long :)_

* * *

><p>James found that Lily liked him far better after his apology than she ever had before. In fact, he realized she was almost friendly towards him. They exchanged pleasant hellos in the corridors, worked companionably on their plant, and he even caught her laughing at a few of his jokes.<p>

This time last year James would have been convinced that this meant Lily was succumbing to his charms and would be madly in love with him in no time. But after everything that had happened at the end of the previous year, he knew better than to think that she would ever love him. The fact that she no longer hated him was enough of a miracle. So rather than attempting to get her to go to Hogsmeade with him, James put his effort into not screwing up their tenuous relationship.

Besides, he was now apparently Julia Taylor's boyfriend. James couldn't recall a discussion he'd had with Julia that actually spelled out this relationship, but Remus informed him that it was a result of him taking Julia to Hogsmeade.

That had also happened rather by accident. They had been snogging in a broom closet when James had let his hands wander up Julia's skirt. He had thought it was a safe move, just the next step in what they'd been doing so far, and at first Julia didn't seem bothered in the slightest. But when he tried to push aside her knickers, she'd snatched his hand away and started shouting at him.

James attempted to mitigate the damage by apologizing profusely and promising to keep his hands off her knickers, but then Julia had informed him that she was done "being his snogging partner."

When James asked her what on earth was wrong with being snogging partners, she'd gotten even more upset and launched into what James thought was a completely irrational tirade about how he didn't really care about her. Apparently none of his answers had been good enough for her, because she had stormed off and left him in the closet with a few old chairs and some mops.

"I reckon you were a bit hasty," Sirius had said when James told the Marauders about the incident. "Probably should have waited for the next snogging session to go for her knickers."

But Remus had just shaken his head.

"It's got nothing to do with that. It's about the fact that you keep taking her to broom closets instead of on proper dates. She's not Christine Waters after all."

"You know, Moony might be on to something. I think that's why Jane MacMillian broke things off with me last year."

So James went to Julia, apologized profusely, and invited her to Madame Puddifoot's. She happily accepted, so he snuck her out of the castle the next Saturday and had quite a pleasant afternoon with her.

He was a bit surprised when she referred to him as her boyfriend, but seeing as how she was undoing his belt buckle at the time he decided not to overthink it. Julia was a nice, pretty girl with a good sense of humor, and James was perfectly content to allow the relationship to progress. James wasn't one for overthinking things, and even if he were, he had lessons and Quidditch concern himself with.

It took a few weeks to get the Quidditch team on track. He had thrown his original training schedule out the window after the first team run. James had thought he was leading them on a rather leisurely three-mile jog, but after the first two miles most of the team looked exhausted and three players had actually dropped back to walk.

"Are you injured?" James had asked Annalise Foster, Norman Flint and Greg Harper. They all shook their heads and James grew more irritated.

"Then you need to start running again."

"Come of it Potter," Flint had said. "This is Quidditch, not muggle football."

"Quidditch requires endurance. If you can't handle a three-mile run, then you can't handle playing on my team."

Most of the players had barely finished the run. Annalise Foster actually started vomiting in the bushes at the end. James decided to forgo the drills he had planned and focus on basic fitness, something he had thought his players would have had the common sense to develop on their own.

"Listen," he told them after the practice had ended. "I know this is miserable, but we can't fall apart in longer matches just because we're worn out. You need to take the fitness portion of this as seriously as you do the flying. Tomorrow I'll be handing out training schedules for each of you and I expect you to follow them. We'll have a normal practice Wednesday, but don't bother bringing your brooms on Friday. Now get some rest, and drink plenty of water."

Most of the team seemed to understand what was expected and rose to the occasion. He now encountered members of his team on nearly all of his morning runs, though Frank Longbottom was the only one who ran each morning as James did. He was especially pleased to see that Alice Manning sometimes managed to convince Lily to run with her. James decided that seeing Lily in tight athletic gear was a brilliant way to start the morning.

As the team's physical condition improved, James concentrated on other aspects of their performance. Jenny Wong and James had flown together before, but Annalise needed to be better integrated into their offense. Greg Harper and Edmund Burke were solid enough beaters, but they weren't up to James' standards for a school-wide team. Emma was also still a bit of a raw talent, and James was constantly trying to ensure he adequate knowledge of strategy.

But problems on the pitch didn't trouble James. He was a good Quidditch captain and he knew how to develop his players. If James were the sort to worry, he would have worried about things off the pitch.

Jenny was joining a bunch of seventh-year girls in what Sirius had dubbed "the rabbit food diet," as it included nothing but fruit and vegetables, which James was convinced would eventually make it impossible for her to keep up at practice. Norman Flint had a terrible attitude and complained constantly. Alice Manning didn't have the confidence required to fill in for Frank if he got injured. To top it off, Emma was still getting bullied by Slytherins.

However, James was not one for worrying. When Jenny started to lag he'd tell her to pick her diet or her team, and he knew which she'd choose. He'd worry about Norman Flint if anyone ever started to pay him any serious attention. And he decided to solve Alice's problems by asking Frank to do extra training with her.

It was only Emma's situation that had him truly concerned. Not only did the arguments about blood purity get him irrationally angry, but he could also tell that the bullying was taking its toll on his Seeker. He could see her confidence waning nearly every time he saw her off the pitch. She looked at the floor, stuck close to groups, and hunched her shoulders. He had seen her come to practice with red eyes enough times that he wasn't surprised when he and the Marauders found her crying on the way back to the common room.

They had just finished bewitching a statue to shout profanity at students along the main corridor, so they were taking a rather roundabout route back to the tower. They wouldn't have even seen Emma if Sirius hadn't lightly shoved Peter, who stumbled and nearly toppled into a suit of armor that was blocking Emma from view. She had let out a little yelp and jumped out from behind the armor as Remus and James rushed to keep it from falling over and drawing Filch to the area.

"Wotcher, Emma," Sirius said. His grin faltered as he took in her bloodshot eyes and splotchy face.

"Hullo."

She forced a smile but kept her arms crossed defensively. James wasn't sure what he ought to do, dealing with crying girls wasn't something he considered a specialty. He supposed he ought to try and figure out what was wrong. He opened his mouth to ask, but Remus interrupted.

"We'll meet you back at that common room," he said, jerking his head in that direction.

"Yeah, see you Prongs," Sirius yanked Peter's arm and followed Remus down the hallway.

Emma and James watched them progress down the hall. She kept her arms folded and scuffed her shoes against the ground.

"So," James said when they were out of hearing range. "Want to tell me what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Right, sitting in deserted hallways and crying is just a hobby of yours, then?"

"It has been ever since I came here," she snapped.

"Why is that?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

James considered leaving her to it, but he felt a sense of responsibility as her Quidditch captain. He felt responsible for the well being of all his players, but Emma's vulnerability heightened the feeling.

"Well, I'm sorry about that," he said. "But you're going to have to tell me what's going on."

"Why?"

She looked at him with her eyes narrowed and her nose scrunched up.

"You're my team's seeker. I look after my team. So anything that concerns you enough to have you crying in the hallways regularly concerns me."

"Who said was regularly?"

"You just did earlier."

"Humph."

James bit back a smirk.

"Come on. My mum says you're supposed to talk about things that upset you. Besides, I might be able to help. I've been at this school awhile now, I know how things work."

"Well, you can't help. Not unless you can change my blood status. Or, I suppose you could kick me off the team so people would forget about me again."

James felt his stomach clench.

"I have no intention of doing that…unless, I mean, I suppose if you wanted to…"

"Do you want me to quit?" her voice trembled.

"No! I just meant that I wouldn't force you to stay. I'd try to persuade you to stay, but if it was really making you that miserable I guess I wouldn't force it."

"The Quidditch team isn't making me miserable. It's other students, mostly Slytherins," she said quietly.

"Yeah, they're generally gits."

"I don't want to quit. Practice is the only time I forget about all this other stuff."

"What other stuff? Being Muggle-born?"

She nodded.

"When I got my letter, my Uncle told me there might be a bit of this, but he never made it sound this bad. He said it would just be a few kids who maybe wouldn't want to hang out with me. He never said they would split my book back every time I walked by or say awful things about my parents or-or jinx me."

Her voice wavered and she looked at the floor, biting her lip.

"What happened today?" James asked.

"A couple third years whispered 'Mudblood' as I passed. When my friend Elizabeth told them to leave off, they cast some spell on her that had her puking up slugs. She's in the hospital wing now and it's all my fault."

James was about to tell her that Madame Pomfrey had fixed worst, but Emma continued.

"They said I needed real witches like Elizabeth to defend me because I'm too afraid to defend myself and-and the worst part is that they're right," she let out a sob. "I am scared a-and I'm t-terrible at spell work and I-I- always need a professor, or-or an older student, or Elizabeth around. And Elizabeth p-probably won't even be my friend anymore after this b-because she w-won't w-want to g-get hexed for-for hanging around m-me-"

Emma's sobs grew louder and James couldn't quite understand the babble of words that came next. When he realized she wasn't going to stop crying any time soon, he wrapped her up in a tight hug. It was the only thing he had ever heard of that seemed to worked with crying girls.

He let her sob into his robes while he tried to consider what in Merlin's name he was going to do about all this.

"It'll be alright," he repeated over and over again, mainly for lack of anything else to say. After a few minutes of this, she stopped crying and narrowed her eyes at him.

"How is it going to be alright? Elizabeth won't be my friend anymore, most of the Slytherins pick on me, and I'm terrible at spells and-

"One thing at a time," James cut her off. "Has Elizabeth actually said she isn't going to be your friend or are you just assuming things without talking to her?"

Emma didn't answer.

"That's what I thought. Don't go creating problems that aren't there."

James paused and considered the rest of her predicament.

"Right, so one down. Now, onto the Slytherins…actually, I want you to leave that me."

Emma raised her eyebrows.

"Just let me know who's giving you trouble-

"I don't want to just run to you! I can take care of myself!"

James groaned as a sense of déjà vu overtook him.

"You don't happen to hang around Lily Evans, do you?"

"The prefect? Not really."

"Well, I think you two would get on just splendidly," he muttered. He tried to get a grip on his frustration, losing his temper hadn't gotten him anywhere when he wanted to help Lily.

"Look," he said finally. "I know you can take care of yourself. But when a bunch of older students gang up on you, it's not a fair fight. I'm not asking you to come get me whenever someone irritates you, but I would like to know when older students are giving you real trouble."

"Why?"

"So I can tell them to leave our team's seeker alone and have a go at someone their own age," he said, his voice coming out harsher than he meant as he imagined confronting the people who picked on Emma.

She looked at him nervously for a moment and James gave her a smile to lessen the impact of his voice.

"I just wish I could take care of it myself," she said quietly. "One of the Slytherins said I probably couldn't even disarm them because I'm not true witch. And he's right. I hardly know any spells, and so far I'm terrible at the ones I have learned."

"Come on Emma, it's only the fourth week of term. I bet that Slytherin couldn't do any spells when he was your age either."

"Bet he could. I know plenty of first-years who can already do a few spells."

James was about to argue with her, but he realized she was right. Children in wizarding families sometimes learned spells from their siblings, and parents didn't always abide by the laws on underage sorcery.

"Well that doesn't really count," he said. "They were just lucky enough to have someone around to teach them. It's not because they're better at magic."

Emma shrugged. James supposed it didn't matter why they knew the spells, they could still make her feel bad. James contemplated how best sort out her predicament.

"Tell you what, how about I teach you to disarm someone? Might come in handy now that you're making so many new friends."

"Wou-Would you really?" Emma's eyes were wide and her lips were tugging towards a smile.

"Sure. We can start now if it suits you."

"Alright then."

"Come on, let's head back to the common room so Filch doesn't go spare when he sees us practicing," James said. "For some reason he always seems to assume the worst about me."

Emma snorted.

"I'm sure it has nothing to with the fact that you turned his cat crimson and gold on Monday."

James grinned.

"How'd you know it was me?"

"I overhead you talking to Sirius Black about it later in the common room."

"Fair enough."

As they made their way back to the common room, James managed to get Emma to tell him more about the people who had been bullying her. Though he treated the discussion casually enough, he made a mental list of people he and the Marauders would be pranking in the near future.

Once inside the common room, they found a space out of the way of other students. Emma took her wand out and looked up expectantly at him. James thought back to when he learned to disarm someone and tried to remember the steps to a spell that was so familiar it seemed second nature to him now.

"Right, so, to disarm someone you're going to focus on the object you want out of their hand, say the incantation, and wave your wand. So, let's start by having you repeat the incantation after me."

She nodded.

"It's _Expelliarmus_."

She repeated it several times, with James correcting her intonation. When he was satisfied, he demonstrated the wand movements. Then he stood behind her and guided her hand through the motions. She practiced it several times, mouthing the incantation to herself as she did so.

"Good, now let's give it a go." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. "Concentrate on my wand, and when you're ready, perform the spell."

Emma nodded. She stared at his wand for a moment before waving her own and yelling,

"_Expelliarmus!_"

James felt the hairs on the back of his head stand on end, but his wand remained firmly in his grasp.

"Not bad for your first time. But you need to try to really imagine the wand flying out of my hand and keep your wrist steady. Now go again."

It took her five tries to get the wand to fly out of James' hand and hit the floor. She grinned up at him when it happened and bounced on her feet. James returned her smile and urged her to repeat the spell a few more times. One she had done so, James decided it was time to make sure she could perform the spell under stress.

"Right, so it's all well and good to disarm me when I'm just standing here, but what if I'm sending jinxes your way, then what?"

"Well, I'd still have to manage it," she said, but James could see the uncertainty flash across her face.

"I think we should try it."

He saw her eyes widen a bit, but she nodded and said,

"So you're going to start jinxing me?"

"Yes."

"O-okay."

"On the count of three. One…two…three!"

James fired a Jelly-Legs Jinx, purposely aiming it just to the right of her legs. Emma jumped to the side and stumbled back into the wall.

"Don't jump around, disarm me!"

He fired another jinx near her face and this time she held her ground and sent the spell his way. James felt his wand twitch, but held onto it easily.

"Good try, but you'll have to better. Really concentrate. I'm going to keep going until you get this wand out of my hand."

Emma gave a quick nod and James continued firing jinxes, while occasionally shouting instructions. It was taking all his effort to avoid actually hitting her while still critiquing her wand work. He hadn't noticed they had drawn an audience until he felt his wand go flying out of his hand and head towards the girl's dormitory.

"JAMES POTTER! What in Merlin's name are you doing?"

James felt his mouth drop open as Lily Evans caught his wand easily. She strode towards him, parting a crowd of on-looking students, and sending him her signature glare.

"Have you lost your mind? You're going to blow up the common room, Potter! I know you can't seem to resist jinxing people, but I really wouldn't have thought you'd have a go at your own Seeker!"

"Evans, I'm not-

"Not what? Not hexing her? It's perfectly clear that you are! You can't just go around jinxing first years for the fun of it-

"But I-

"I don't care if she's your Quidditch player and this is some sort of training technique, you're simply not allowed! It's cruel Potter! She-"

"I-

"She looks positively harassed and I won't tolerate-

"EVANS WILL YOU GIVE ME A BLOODY CHANCE TO SPEAK!"

His raised voice startled her into a momentary silence and James knew he better seize the opportunity to defend himself.

"I'm not 'jinxing her for the fun of it'! I'm teaching her how to disarm an opponent!"

"Then why aren't you doing something normal like teaching her the wand motions and letting her practice, rather than firing jinxes off all over the common room?"

"We already did that and she mastered it! But if someone's trying jinx her, they're not just going to stand there and let her calmly do the incantation, are they? I'm trying to simulate the kind of situation she would be in if she actually needed to use the spell. And honestly, Evans, if I was actually trying to hit her, she'd be out cold by now!"

"You're not actually trying?" Emma glared at him.

James groaned. One girl was mad at him for throwing jinxes and another was mad at him for not throwing them.

"I'm really doing the spells," he told Emma. "But I'm aiming near you, not at you."

James turned his attention back towards Lily and snapped,

"Happy? Can I have my wand back or do you have some other unfounded accusations to throw about?"

Lily scoffed, but handed James his wand. When she didn't seem inclined to say anything more, James turned to Emma and said,

"Would you like to keep at it?"

She looked apprehensively at the crowd around the common room, and James understood her concerns.

"Nevermind for now. We should schedule a time to practice in an empty classroom, it's getting late enough for tonight."

Emma nodded. The crowd of students saw the entertainment was over and began to open their books or turn back to their friends. James walked over to Emma.

"You were doing very well," he told her. "Would you like to work after lessons tomorrow, before practice? We'll meet in a classroom so we won't bother anyone else."

"That would work," she said. She looked down at the floor and kicked at it.

"Thanks," she whispered.

Then she made for the girls dormitory before James could reply. James shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. Her entire personality puzzled him. She could be fierce one moment and then skittish as a deer the next. He was still frowning after her when he felt a warm, gentle touch on his arm. He turned to the side and looked down at Lily Evans, who was tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I'm sorry about earlier," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. It's actually very good of you to help her."

James knew he had been irritated with Lily just moments earlier, but his anger melted away. He supposed it hadn't really been that important.

"S'alright," he said.

Lily stared at him for a moment longer before asking,

"Is she still getting picked on?"

James nodded.

"They were saying she's not a proper witch because she can't do a whole lot of spells yet. I tried to explain that it's early in the term, but she still thinks she's behind."

"I used to feel that way," Lily said. "I still do sometimes."

James stared at her in disbelief.

"You're joking. You're one of the best in our year! If you're behind, then who the hell is ahead?"

Lily blushed.

"It's not so much lessons that make me feel behind. It's other things…things about the magical world that I don't know. Bands that everyone but me has heard of, things like that."

"I suppose," James shrugged. "But who really cares about that? You know all the magic, that's what actually matters."

James wasn't sure why, but he had a feeling he hadn't said the right thing. Lily sighed and shook her head, drawing her eyebrows together as she did so.

"Easy for you to say. It's not fun to be left out of the conversations, not understand what people are talking about, or be the last person to know about everything."

"I'm not saying it is. I'm just saying it's not listening to The Pygmies that makes you a witch, it's doing magic. And you do that as well as anyone."

"You make it sound like nothing, but it's hard to feel like you don't belong!"

"I know, I –

"You don't know! You're James Potter, how could you possibly know!"

James wasn't sure how she had managed to turn even his name into an insult, but somehow it seemed she had. He could feel his temper rising and half a dozen insults had formed in his head, but he caught himself and took a breath.

"I don't want to argue with you, Evans. For the record, I was trying to make you feel better. But I've got work to do, so you'll have to find someone else to snap at for no good reason."

He turned to leave and was about to step away when Lily all but shouted,

"No!"

James, and a few other people in the common room, stared at her. She lowered her voice.

"I mean, don't leave. I-I'm sorry-again. I _was_ snapping at you for no good reason. I just-I just felt like you were trying to minimize it. Act like it's no big deal to be Muggle-born and not know things. And I wanted to feel like you…understood, or at least that you knew it was a big deal. That it was hard."

For the second time that evening, James felt himself softening. He wondered why it was that he couldn't stay mad at Lily Evans for longer than a minute. He decided it was because she was looking straight into his eyes, her own eyes wide and bright and begging to be understood.

"It's alright," he said again. "I obviously don't know what it's like to be Muggle-born. But, I can imagine, and I do know it's hard. I wouldn't be trying to help if I thought it was no big deal."

"I know," Lily gave him a small smile. "I was completely out of order to get angry with you like that. I don't know what's come over me tonight."

"Oh come on Evans. It's me. You love to get angry with me, and you hadn't done it in weeks."

Suddenly her face became grave again and James realized she was actually seriously concerned about hurting his feelings.

"I'm joking," he gave her his best smile. "Lighten up."

She couldn't seem to decide if she ought to laugh or remain serious. The result, to James' amusement, was that a smile tugged at her lips while her forehead remained furrowed. He started to laugh and her face turned to a scowl.

"What?"

"You," he said, cocking his head to the side to study her. "You take everything way too seriously."

"I don't think so. On the contrary, I don't think you take things seriously enough."

James shrugged.

"There are enough things in life that are unquestionably serious. Why add to that by making things serious if they don't have to be?"

She tilted her head to study him.

"I guess I don't know," she admitted. "I suppose I take things seriously so people know that I care."

"I think that's important, but I also think it's possible to care too much. At a certain point, it moves from caring into worrying."

"I thought it was good to worry."

"Only for as long as it takes to figure out what you're going to do about it," James said. "Then you need to stop worrying and start doing whatever it is you need to do."

"Hmmmm," Lily looked and then shook her head. "You surprise me sometimes, James."

She gave him a small smile and then turned to walk away. James fought the instinct to grab hold of her arm and keep her near him.

"Wait! Surprise you how?"

"In a good way…don't go _worrying_ about it now."

She turned, tossed a smirk his way, and walked towards the girls' dormitory. James knew better than to bother figuring out why even Lily's smirks made his heart beat faster.


	15. Chapter 15

After that evening, Lily noticed there was a sharp rise in pranks on Slytherins. She also noticed that the pranks' victims had picked on Emma or been particularly vocal in bashing muggle-borns.

Lily immediately had her suspicions about who was responsible. The Marauders had actually been spending time in the library, usually whispering and pointing to a piece of parchment. One evening she had seen Peter Pettigrew fetch a book called Magical Motor Disorders and bring it to their table. The next day Gregory Mulligan developed a strange twitch. On another night, she had seen Sirius Black (who never studied) pouring over a potions book. The next day, Peter Pettigrew bumped into Ryan Mulciber at breakfast, nearly sending his drink flying. A few hours later Mulciber started sweating and steam poured out of his ears.

To confirm her suspicions, Lily tried mentioning it to Remus during rounds.

His answer was an evasive shrug.

"Does it matter? Does it really bother you that a bunch of bigots are temporarily going bald or having their ears enlarged?"

Lily couldn't honestly say it bothered her. It was as much curiosity as anything else driving her questions. If the Marauders were going to insist on making trouble, which was a forgone conclusion as far as Lily was concerned, then she thought they might as well do it for a worthy cause.

Two weeks later, Dumbledore announced the athletes from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be arriving. That put the castle in uproar. The house elves usually stayed out of sight, but now they could be spotted assisting Filch with cleaning. Professors were also helping between classes. Hagrid and Professor Greene were busy trimming shrubs and planting trees. Professor Flitwick was charming tapestries and draperies to resist stains. Lily saw Dumbledore himself inspecting the ceiling in the Great Hall with Professor McGonagall and saying he might refresh the spell on it.

Rumors were also flying about the guest students. The girls from Beauxbatons were supposedly more beautiful than any ordinary British witch. The boys of Durmstrang were fierce and well versed in the Dark Arts.

Members of the Quidditch team were training with renewed vigor. Annalise Foster was seen walking through the halls muttering to herself as she stared at diagrams of plays. Frank Longbottom and Alice trained every day that James didn't hold a Quidditch practice. Alice also started running around the castle grounds five days a week, even when Lily and Marlene declined to join her.

"I've still got a ways to go though," she said over breakfast one morning. "James literally lapped me yesterday, though he was nearly sick afterward."

"Well, he's been training for years," Marlene said.

"I know, but it's rather humiliating to get lapped," Alice said. "I told Frank about it when were training last night and he said I might need to work on my running form, whatever that means."

"Form?" Marlene rolled her eyes. "Don't you just put one foot and front of the other and move quickly?"

"No," Lily said. "Muggles have written books about it. Lots of muggles run, even if they aren't athletes. It keeps you thin and they obviously haven't got weight loss potions, or at least not ones that actually work. They've tried to develop them though."

Alice nodded.

"Frank was telling me that you've go to hold your arms a certain way, put weight in certain parts of your foot, all kinds of things," Alice said. "He's going to work on it with me tomorrow morning."

"You and Frank have been spending a lot of time together," Marlene raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"Well James told him to train me to be his backup Keeper. Frank is very responsible, so he wants to make sure he does a good job of it."

"Mmmhmm," Marlene grinned.

"Come of it," Alice said. "He's not flirting with me."

Alice shook her head and then tucked her hair behind her ears. She had no trouble meeting their eyes, but Lily saw a flicker of emotion that she couldn't quite explain.

"Would you _want_ him to flirt with you?" Lily asked.

Alice opened her mouth, then shut it again and shook her head.

"No no. That would complicate things with Quidditch."

Marlene was about to press the issue when someone shouted, "Look!"

A cameraman and several unfamiliar witches and wizards were walking into the Great Hall. They approached the staff table and shook hands with Professor Dumbledore, who began scanning the Great Hall after he spoke with them. A few moments later, his voice rang out over the sounds of breakfast.

"Has any one seen James Potter?"

"He's running around the grounds," Sirius Black shouted. "It's his usual morning ritual. In fact, he should be here-ah, yes!"

Sirius had looked towards the doors of the Great Hall and grinned. Lily followed his gaze and saw that James had just entered the hall red-faced, drenched in sweat, and wearing athletic gear. He didn't even look up at the strangers at the staff table, but made his way straight towards the Gryffindoor table.

"Prongs! Are you camera ready?"

James looked up at Sirius, clearly puzzled, but then shrugged and said,

"I'm always camera ready."

Just as he tossed Sirius a grin, there was a series of flashes. The cameramen rushed down from the staff table and continued to snap pictures as James gaped at the chaos in front of him. He looked up at the staff table and something seemed to click into place.

"I didn't realize you'd be coming so early," he said. "I was under the impression the interviews were going to be after dinner."

"That was the original schedule, but it seems our friends from the Daily Prophet happened to be in the area for another story and just couldn't wait to come by," Professor Dumbledore said. He smiled at James and made his way to the Gryffindoor table with the reporters in toe.

"Mr. Potter, do you remember Ms. Skeeter, I believe you were in your second year during her last year at Hogwarts."

A woman with bright makeup and glasses stepped forward and shook James' hand.

"I do remember you," James smiled. "I apologize for making you shake my hand when I'm such a mess."

Ms. Skeeter didn't seem to think he was a mess at all. Lily almost rolled her eyes as the woman shook his hand firmly and looked him over. Lily had to admit James looked rather handsome with his tighter shirt, messy hair, and slightly flushed cheeks. Still, she thought a reporter oughtn't look at the student she was interviewing like he was a delicious meal.

"Call me Rita, dear," the woman said.

"Well Rita, I'm going to have to put you off while I get changed," James said. He looked around the hall for a moment, then shouted. "Oi Frank!"

Frank Longbottom stood up from the Ravenclaw table and James waved him over. After James introduced him to Rita Skeeter, he said,

"Frank is my assistant captain and he can talk to you while I shower and that."

"Wonderful," Rita said. The reporters turned their attention to Frank and James came over beside Lily, Marlene and Alice.

"Manning," he whispered. "I don't want anyone other than Frank talking to these reporters. I was going to bring this up at practice, but the nosy sods are here early. Tell everyone that I'd prefer they not speak to the reporters, but if they do, to remember that everything they say could end up read by all of England, and our opponents as well."

Alice nodded and she immediately rose from her spot and made her way to where Jenny Wong was sitting.

"Marlene, Lily," James nodded a hello to each of them.

"Quite a start to the morning," Marlene said.

"Isn't it? Evans, sorry about this, but I'm going to reach past you and grab some of that fruit. Brace yourself for the smell."

Lily laughed and leaned away, but when James moved past her she found she almost liked the scent that wafted by her.

"Alive still?" he asked.

"Don't worry about it," she said with another laugh. "It was fine."

"Good, because I'm thinking about grabbing some sausage as well."

"Why not some toast, too? Make it a full meal."

"Nah, I don't care for it without marmalade and there's no time for sitting around fixing my toast."

James balanced the fruit in one hand and Lily looked down at the toast on her own plate. She had just finished putting marmalade on it, but she had plenty of time to fix herself another slice.

"Here, you can have my toast," Lily told him.

"I can't do that."

"James, there's plenty more where this came from."

"Alright."

He looked at his full hands, proceeded to stuff all the sausage in his mouth, and held out his newly free hand for the toast.

"That's disgusting, Potter," she told him.

He shrugged and looked as though he wanted to say something, but had entirely too much food in his mouth to do so. Lily started laughing and James covered his mouth as he stifled his own laughter.

"Here," Lily giggled. She stood up and held out the toast.

"Fanksh," he mumbled, causing her to laugh even harder. James still couldn't afford to open his own mouth to laugh, but his eyes were twinkling as he watched her.

Then Lily saw a flash and heard the crack of the camera. Startled, she glanced around and saw that the Daily Prophet's photographer had snapped a photo. He gave them a quick smile before moving his camera on to other candid shots. Lily suddenly felt quite aware of her smiles, they way James' eyes sparkled at her, and how close she was standing to him. She stepped back and sat down in her chair again.

"I have a feeling that's going to be a rather unflattering photo" she said. "You should probably get going, it seems they're awfully eager."

James nodded, gave her a wave, and jogged out of the Great Hall.

Two days later, a story appeared over two full pages of the Prophet's sport section. The story included a picture of the team and the picture of James when he first entered the Great Hall. There was also a caption that mentioned the Hogwarts captain went on daily runs and was quite fit.

The article itself was somewhat bland. James and Frank Longbottom failed to express anything other than confidence in the team and excitement about the upcoming tournament. But, as Remus explained to Lily during their patrol, this was actually part of James' media strategy.

"Media strategy?" Lily giggled. "Potter has a media strategy?"

"Well, it's more like him forbidding anyone from speaking to the Prophet," Remus said.

"Oh, I'd heard something about that," Lily said. "I thought there was more to it. Besides, can he really do that, tell people whether or not they can talk to the Prophet?"

"Dunno," Remus shrugged. "He said he'd bench anyone who did. He doesn't want people gossiping or getting distracted by articles written about them. So, he's hoping to ensure the Prophet writes really boring articles by controlling what gets said to the reporters."

"Makes sense. I barely ever read the sport section, but when I do it's half gossip about players dating one another or getting into trouble for drinking and that."

Remus nodded and they ambled down a corridor on the fifth floor of Hogwarts. They hadn't caught anyone out of bed that night. In fact, most of their patrols this year had been fairly uneventful. When Lily pointed this out to Remus, he actually chucked a bit.

"I'm quite glad to hear you say that. It's taken quite a bit of effort on my part."

"What do you mean?"

"Really, Lily? Don't you remember the beginning of fifth year?"

She hadn't been thinking about it before, but now she recalled it quite vividly. James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew were constant companions on their patrols for the first half of fifth year. Sometimes they bewitched suits of armor to chase Remus and Lily through the hall or set off dung bombs. Other times, James had shown up somewhere along the patrol to ask Lily out, or, in one instance, to join him in the broom closet which he had popped out of holding a rose. Even if the Marauders were not there specifically to bother Lily and Remus, one of them was usually caught snogging in a broom closet or sneaking food from the kitchens.

"How did you get them to stop?" Lily asked.

"You," Remus said simply. "I told James that if he kept pranking us, you'd hate him even more than you already did. So, that's when he started pranking other prefects and asking you out during patrols instead. Then I had to explain that you didn't approve of him breaking the rules to ask you out, and he was even less likely to get a yes out of you that way."

"You know, he's been much better this year," Lily said. "He's actually been pleasant sometimes."

Remus slowed down and looked at her carefully for a moment. He opened his mouth to speak, but chuckled instead.

"Well, 'pleasant sometimes' is probably the best compliment you've ever given him. I'll be sure to tell him he's growing on you."

"Please don't!"

"I'm joking. I think he's finally starting to realize that you're not interested in him."

"Oh…well, that's good I suppose."

She thought it was. It should have been after all. But Lily found she didn't entirely like the idea of James Potter losing interest in her. She pushed that thought out of her mind. It was her vanity talking, and it wasn't fair to expect James to continue his attention just to boost her ego. It was good of him to move on to someone who would return his affections.

She realized Remus had never replied and was now looking at her again. She couldn't think of what she ought to say and searched her mind for something to end the awkward pause.

"Well, I suppose we might as well patrol by Ravenclaw," she said at last.

"Sounds good."

When they rounded the corner, Remus stopped short and let out a groan.

"_Honestly_."

He shook his head and Lily followed his gaze. It took her a moment recognize James because at first all she saw was the back of his head. His messy hair was sticking out at all angles and he had one arm resting against the stone wall. On closer inspection, Lily realized that his other arm was around the waist of the girl he was snogging.

"Prongs!"

James made as if to move, but the little hands around his neck pulled him back down. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Now Potter!"

James jumped and stepped away from the wall, revealing his snogging partner to be Julia Taylor. Lily had heard they were seeing each other, but she previously would have said Julia was too sensible to snog James Potter outside the common room after curfew. At the moment, however, Julia was looking anything but sensible. Instead, she was staring doe-eyed at James with her cheeks flushed and her blonde waves tangled around her face. If Lily were in a more charitable mood, she might have admitted that Julia looked rather pretty, even if she was staring stupidly at Potter. But Lily wasn't feeling charitable, she was feeling irritable. So she found the way Julia was staring at Potter and clinging to his arm absolutely obnoxious.

"Really Prongs, you knew Lily and I were patrolling tonight," Remus shook his head with exasperation.

"I'm sorry," Julia said, not sounding it at all. "He was going to leave on time, we just, uhm, well we-

"Were too busy snogging each other's faces off?" Lily supplied.

Julia let out an indignant huff and glared at Lily, who realized she probably sounded rather rude, but just couldn't be bothered to care.

"And so what if we were?" James snapped.

"Well you would be breaking curfew, so it would be against the rules. That's 'so what', Potter!"

"Oh, and I'm sure when you were dating Davies you never snogged after curfew."

"Prongs-

"No I didn't! There's plenty of time to snog before curfew and on the weekends. Not everyone thinks they're above the rules just because they're good at throwing a ball through a hoop!"

"I'm no more above the rules than anyone else, Evans. I think most rules are rubbish and you're just as entitled to break them as I am. You could have snogged Davies all night for all I cared! It's not my fault you didn't find the rewards were worth a little risk!"

Lily stepped back, shocked. Why the bloody hell did he have to go and bring that up? Her mind raced as she remembered fighting with Jonathan, who always wanted to go further, and Christine Evans telling her she must be an awful girlfriend since she didn't want to sneak out at night to shag him. Why did Potter have to go bringing all that up again? Now she couldn't even slow her thoughts down enough to formulate a reply.

"For fuck's sake James!" Remus said quietly. "That hasn't got anything to do with it. Ten points from Gryffindoor for violating curfew. Now would you and Julia please go to bed?"

"We'll talk tomorrow, yeah?" James said to Julia. She nodded and he gave her a quick hug before setting off towards the common room.

"Good night Julia," Remus said. Then he and Lily started walking towards Gryffindoor tower. James was striding quickly, and it wasn't hard to stay well behind him. Lily remained silent as she contemplated both her fury at James and her relationship with Jonathan Davies.

The lack of chemistry had been a problem. Lily thought he was handsome, but she found snogging him neither particularly pleasant nor unpleasant. Certainly not so much fun that she was willing to risk a detention for it. And she wasn't just going to jump into bed with him either, though she couldn't quite explain why. She just hadn't wanted to, and shouldn't that have been reason enough? But apparently it wasn't to Jonathan, nor to Christine Waters, though it wasn't her damn business anyway.

As time went on, Jonathan started to seem preoccupied and wasn't available to study, hang out in the common room, or even snog. So Lily had decided there was no point and she might as well just end it. Jonathan hadn't seemed too broken up over it and Lily had to admit she wasn't either. She was more upset that people like Christine, and now Potter, thought it was their business to comment on her relationship.

"Listen Lily, I'm sorry about James."

Lily pushed her thoughts aside and focused on Remus.

"Don't be, it's not your fault. I wish he hadn't brought up Jonathan, that's all."

"And that's why I'm apologizing. I should have-I don't know- cut him off or something."

"No you shouldn't have, Remus. That's not your responsibility. Potter's a big boy now, he can control his own mouth."

"Sometimes I don't think he can," Remus said with a sigh.

Lily shrugged and thought back to the argument. It was better than thinking about Jonathan anyway. She wasn't sure if he had meant to imply anything about the lack of chemistry between her and Jonathan the first time he mentioned the relationship. He had been trying to get her to admit that she occasionally broke rules too. But she was sensitive about the whole thing, so she jumped down his throat the moment he said 'Davies.'

Of course the last comment he made had certainly been implying something about the lack of chemistry between her and Jonathan. And what did he know about it anyway? She supposed he must have overheard Christine. Even so, he had no business bringing it up.

She and Remus turned a corner and took the stairs up to Gryffindor tower. When they reached the portrait hole, Lily stopped. James Potter was outside it, pacing back and forth. When he saw them, he stopped and ran his hand through his hair.

"Uhm, I-well, maybe we should go inside."

He muttered the password to the fat lady, who shook her head, and they stepped inside the common room. A few seventh years were working quietly at a table, but it was otherwise deserted.

Lily turned to go to the dormitory, but James stopped her.

"Wait Lily, please," he said. "I'm really sorry about what I said earlier."

He spewed the words out quickly and ran his hand through his hair again. When Lily said nothing, he continued.

"I shouldn't have brought Davies into it. That had nothing to do with anything. I just-

He sighed and shook his head.

"I just lost my temper and was an arse. No two ways around it really. I'm sorry."

Lily sighed. She hadn't expected him to apologize so quickly. She would have thought it would make things better. And it did in a way, but she still felt sad.

"Apology accepted Potter."

She did mean it. It was a perfectly acceptable apology. It just didn't make her feel any less shoddy about everything with Jonathan, and it didn't change the fact that he had been the one to bring that all up again.

"Really? Because you don't seem happy."

"Well, I'm not. I accept your apology, but that doesn't mean I can just forget what you said and all the emotions that came with it."

"Emotions?"

"Yes Potter. Emotions. It was a rather sore subject."

"Oh, uhm. Sorry?"

Lily sighed, half amused and half exasperated. Was he actually this dense? She really thought he might be.

"You do have a habit of doing this to me Potter. You lose your temper and bring up painful things in my life. Like that bit with Severus last year, and now this."

James winced. Out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Remus glance nervously at the two of them and make for the boys dormitory. James must have caught it as well, because he gave Lily a small smile and said,

"Can't say I blame him."

"Me neither."

They stood quietly for a moment, both staring at the floor. At last James said,

"Listen, I was going to apologize about that, before uhm-anyway, I am sorry about that. It was a shit way for you to lose a friend. I'm not going to pretend that I liked him, I don't, but I never meant to hurt you."

"You don't think taunting my friend hurt me?" she asked quietly. "Because wouldn't you have been hurt if someone was cruel to Sirius, or Remus, or Peter?"

James looked at her for a moment, his mouth slightly open.

"No wonder you hate me! If someone did to Sirius, Remus, or Peter, what I did to Snape, I'd hex them into a pile of purple mush. I-I…well that explains that."

"I don't _hate _you. But honestly, you're just now starting to understand this Potter?"

"Well-er-I didn't really think of you and Snape as friends-

"What?"

"No, that's not it. It's not coming out right," James shook his head. "He was just so…so _prejudiced._ And you _are_ muggle-born. And so I always thought there was no way you two could care about each other the way you care about Alice and Marlene. Or the way I do with my friends. I thought-I don't know."

He ran his hands through his hair.

"I didn't understand it. Still don't. I mean how is it that he could think all muggle-borns are inferior, and yet be a good friend to you? And all the dark magic! And-

"I_ know _all that. I don't need you to remind me!"

"I'm not trying to! I'm trying to explain why I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that someone as good a person as you could be friends with someone like him! I just…I didn't get it, so I didn't really accept it, so I didn't really accept that I was treating you badly every time I treated him badly."

Lily stared at him in shock. She could sort of understand how he felt about it. She wasn't sure that made it right, but she could see it. And he looked remorseful, remorseful but also frustrated.

"And I am sorry! I am sorry I hurt you, but damnit Lily, he's a fucking-never mind, sorry," James shook his head. "I can't tell you I'm sorry for hurting him, because it wouldn't be true. Snape and I have been at each other's throats forever. Since he insulted Gryffindor in front of me. And he's obsessed with dark magic, wants the power, and-

"James-

"Right, right, not the point. Point is, there is so much bad blood between the two of us that I can't really say I'm sorry about it."

"Look, James, I didn't ask you to be sorry for Severus-

"I know, I know, I'm missing the point again. What I'm trying to say is that I may not be sorry about Snape, but I am sorry for hurting you."

He sighed and began pacing again, running his hand through his hair and looking a bit overwhelmed. Lily was trying to think of something to say. Some way to explain how much she appreciated what he was saying. But she was too overwhelmed to collect herself and James seemed to be on a roll.

"Maybe if I had understood how involved you were I'd have been better with Snape. But truthfully I don't know, he's such a _git_. But I didn't mean to hurt you either. So," he swallowed. "I'm going to tone it down. I should anyway, Dumbledore told me I have a real leadership position or something now. And, and well, I can't promise I'll never jinx him again, but I won't start the jinxes, how's that?"

Lily bit back a smile. There was something amusing about the amount of effort it seemed to require James to convince himself_ not_ to jinx someone. But there was no denying that he meant it, and that he was truly sorry.

"It's a start," she said, but then more quietly, she added. "Thank you, I really do appreciate it. And, I know it was Severus too. And I know he's…not a good person. We just knew each other before Hogwarts. He was the one who told me I was doing magic, convinced me I wasn't some kind of freak. So, when he came here and fell into that crowd, I kept trying to save the friendship. But I shouldn't have. We each chose our paths."

"I'm really sorry, Lily."

"The friendship was going to end sooner or later. I wish it hadn't been like that, a public spectacle, but-

"I'm sorry, I-

"James I _know_! I sometimes think it was a blessing in disguise. I'm not sure I'd have been willing to end the friendship if it weren't something impossible to ignore. Marlene and Alice had been telling me to stay away from him for the last two years, but I kept thinking he wasn't all bad. It took something like that to make me realize that maybe he was, or at least close to it."

James shrugged.

"I forgive you. I couldn't before, but I do now," Lily said, glancing nervously at the floor. "And I'm sorry I yelled so much, last year and tonight. It was more than you actually deserved."

She chanced a glance back up at James and he rewarded her with a warm smile. It made Lily realize why girls were so fond of that smile. It was playful, disarming, and seemed to light up his whole face, even making his eyes sparkle beneath his glasses.

"I forgive you too. I was never angry to begin with really," he said. "So, this means we're good then? I forgive you, you forgive me, everyone's happy, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Lily giggled and he smiled again. They both continued looking at each other and Lily decided that the firelight made the flecks of gold in his hazel eyes jump out. He met her gaze for a moment longer then let his eyes drift downward. Lily wasn't entirely sure if he was looking at her lips, the line of her jaw, or even lower. The thought sent a warmth through her body and she dropped her gaze, blushing.

"Goodnight," she whispered.

"Night, Lily."

She watched him turn away and followed his progress up the stairs. He glanced back at her and smiled again. She returned the smile quickly, then made for the stairs before he noticed her blushing.


End file.
